How did Foreflight do it?

luvflyin

luvflyin

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Luvflyin
So I'm riding from KONT to KLAS back with the cattle on Southwest. I've got the route plugged into Foreflight and following along to be more prepared just in case both the pilots ate the fish and I have to go up and save the day. About halfway there Foreflight pops up with 'nearest altimeter, LAS 29.whatever.' I had WiFi turned off. Cellular data was turned off. And after that I put it in Airplane Mode. The only thing that was on is Location Services. So how did it get the LAS Altimeter setting??
 
Bluetooth ADS-B? Or perhaps it was information that had been downloaded prior to departure.
 
midwestpa24 said:
Bluetooth ADS-B? Or perhaps it was information that had been downloaded prior to departure.
Click to expand...
Hmm. I never use bluetooth for anything, but I didn't see if it was on or off. If that was it, wouldn't it have to be 'paired' with something? I have never paired this Ipad with anything?
 
luvflyin said:
Hmm. I never use bluetooth for anything, but I didn't see if it was on or off. If that was it, wouldn't it have to be 'paired' with something? I have never paired this Ipad with anything?
Click to expand...

It would have to be paired. I missed the original part about you being in the cattle section. I'd guess it was just data from the last time Foreflight had an internet connection. Which in retrospect almost sounds dangerous, because the setting could have changed. Granted your flight time was probably an hour or less, so maybe it won't display it after it is a certain age.
 
I may be misunderstanding but did you have the actual filed and/or assigned route programmed into FF? If so, how did you obtain it?
 
luvflyin said:
About halfway there Foreflight pops up with 'nearest altimeter, LAS 29.whatever.'
Click to expand...

Two questions:
Does your iPad have its own GPS?
Did you see the Baro data for the airport in the gray "Instrument Panel" data bar, at the bottom of the map page, with a notation "Nrst Baro"?

If yes to both, then I'm guessing:
- your iPad's GPS indicated a position that Foreflight recognized as near a certain airport; and that does not require any live data.
- Forelight displayed the (somewhat recent) Baro data it possessed for that airport (maybe it was downloaded before your flight, if you "packed your bag" after setting up the flight plan in FF).

If you experienced this only sporadically, maybe it's because your GPS reception wasn't very good in the back of the 737, and it detected your position only occasionally. So by coincidence, when you were flying over some airport that reports METARS, you happened to get some GPS reception, and Foreflight presented whatever (stale) METAR data it possessed for that airport by updating the "Nrst Baro" field at the bottom of the maps page, to indicate the Baro setting for that particular airport.

Just a guess ...
 
Last edited:
RingLaserGyroSandwich said:
I may be misunderstanding but did you have the actual filed and/or assigned route programmed into FF? If so, how did you obtain it?
Click to expand...

Go to maps, type in the flight number, SWA345, for example, and one of the results will be “scheduled flights”

Works for your tail number as well.
 
It must have downloaded the weather when you pulled up the route. Since you were only halfway and it said the nearest altimeter setting was the destination, it wasn’t picking up live info.
 
RingLaserGyroSandwich said:
I may be misunderstanding but did you have the actual filed and/or assigned route programmed into FF? If so, how did you obtain it?
Click to expand...
I got what was probably the filed route from FlightAware. I've plugged ones in from Foreflights route advisor before. Just pick what seems the most likely one they'll get. There's no way that I know of to get what was actually issued to the pilot. It's pretty easy to follow along and see any changes from what was guessed and plug them them in.
 
NoHeat said:
Two questions:
Does your iPad have its own GPS?
Did you see the Baro data for the airport in the gray "Instrument Panel" data bar, at the bottom of the map page, with a notation "Nrst Baro"?

If yes to both, then I'm guessing:
- your iPad's GPS indicated a position that Foreflight recognized as near a certain airport; and that does not require any live data.
- Forelight displayed the (somewhat recent) Baro data it possessed for that airport (maybe it was downloaded before your flight, if you "packed your bag" after setting up the flight plan in FF).

If you experienced this only sporadically, maybe it's because your GPS reception wasn't very good in the back of the 737, and it detected your position only occasionally. So by coincidence, when you were flying over some airport that reports METARS, you happened to get some GPS reception, and Foreflight presented whatever (stale) METAR data it possessed for that airport by updating the "Nrst Baro" field at the bottom of the maps page, to indicate the Baro setting for that particular airport.

Just a guess ...
Click to expand...
It has GPS. I didn't have Nrst Baro selected as field in Instrument Panel. I think it was probably 'stale' data, but not from sporadic reception. I'm still not seeing how it could receive data with WiFi and Cellular turned off and Blutooth not paired with anything. I'm thinking it was as @midwestpa24 described in post #8. Stale data from when I was last hooked up on WiFi before turning everything off before departure.
 
If it wasn’t Bluetooth it might have been Goldtooth … especially if you got a grillz! :rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
luvflyin said:
I got what was probably the filed route from FlightAware. I've plugged ones in from Foreflights route advisor before. Just pick what seems the most likely one they'll get. There's no way that I know of to get what was actually issued to the pilot. It's pretty easy to follow along and see any changes from what was guessed and plug them them in.
Click to expand...

Read my post two before this one. No need go the Flight Aware. You can pull up the assigned route through ForeFlight.
 
Dave Theisen said:
Read my post two before this one. No need go the Flight Aware. You can pull up the assigned route through ForeFlight.
Click to expand...
I’ll be danged. It worked. But what’s the time frame it works with. I put in a random flight# and nothing. So I found a flight departing from somewhere in a couple hours and it worked.
 
luvflyin said:
So I'm riding from KONT to KLAS back with the cattle on Southwest. I've got the route plugged into Foreflight and following along to be more prepared just in case both the pilots ate the fish and I have to go up and save the day. About halfway there Foreflight pops up with 'nearest altimeter, LAS 29.whatever.' I had WiFi turned off. Cellular data was turned off. And after that I put it in Airplane Mode. The only thing that was on is Location Services. So how did it get the LAS Altimeter setting??
Click to expand...

I don’t think it got anything. I think it used your GPS location to display the last cached altimeter setting.
 
GaryM said:
Your vaccination chip picks up the 5G signal from ground stations, and sends it to the iPad using gamma rays.
Click to expand...

Yoo mus be won of dem raket serjens I be hereing ebout
 
I was playing with Garmin Pilot on a recent flight and it pulled GPS altitude. Airplane mode definitely disables radios, but perhaps not gps?
 
scarpozzi said:
I was playing with Garmin Pilot on a recent flight and it pulled GPS altitude. Airplane mode definitely disables radios, but perhaps not gps?
Click to expand...
I don't know if Garmin Pilot uses Ipads. On Ipads, the only thing you need turned on to get GPS is Location Services. Cellular Data and WiFi can be off and Airplane Mode on.
 
scarpozzi said:
I was playing with Garmin Pilot on a recent flight and it pulled GPS altitude. Airplane mode definitely disables radios, but perhaps not gps?
Click to expand...

easy to test. turn on airplane mode and fly around. if foreflight/pilot has your location, then gps is working. if it doesn't, then it isn't.
 
luvflyin said:
I don't know if Garmin Pilot uses Ipads. On Ipads, the only thing you need turned on to get GPS is Location Services. Cellular Data and WiFi can be off and Airplane Mode on.
Click to expand...
I was just using it on my Android phone, but not sure what iPads do. Location services can include gps or cell tower references. GP actually shows altitude as GPS altitude, likely so if you're using it, you'll be aware that it's source is only as good as the radio signal, which is suspectable to radio interference and decoding lag.
 
GaryM said:
Your vaccination chip picks up the 5G signal from ground stations, and sends it to the iPad using gamma rays.
Click to expand...

The 3 of those I'm carrying around should have a NOTAM for radar altimeters :p

RingLaserGyroSandwich said:
I may be misunderstanding but did you have the actual filed and/or assigned route programmed into FF? If so, how did you obtain it?
Click to expand...

Apparently, FF can pull it. I always get my commercial routes from FlightAware

scarpozzi said:
I was playing with Garmin Pilot on a recent flight and it pulled GPS altitude. Airplane mode definitely disables radios, but perhaps not gps?
Click to expand...

GPS doesn't turn off unless you turn off location services.

luvflyin said:
I don't know if Garmin Pilot uses Ipads. On Ipads, the only thing you need turned on to get GPS is Location Services. Cellular Data and WiFi can be off and Airplane Mode on.
Click to expand...

Garmin Pilot is, indeed, available on iPads.

scarpozzi said:
I was just using it on my Android phone, but not sure what iPads do.
Click to expand...

Android phones all have GPS built in. Only iPads with cellular have GPS built in, because Apple sucks, but those will get you GPS altitude. It is always interesting seeing what that is on a high/low pressure day.
 
Yes I tried it on a recent flight and it worked. I briefed my friend on the planned departure procedure/transition and he was impressed when the plane actually did it.
 
scarpozzi said:
I was playing with Garmin Pilot on a recent flight and it pulled GPS altitude. Airplane mode definitely disables radios, but perhaps not gps?
Click to expand...

Yeah, airplane mode is to disable cellular to theoretically keep cellular from interfering with avionics. No reason it should disable the GPS chip per se.
 
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