Pilot’s Seat

Cockpit instruments in your passenger seat.

Put your phone on the tray table or hold it in your hand, and a classic six-pack panel moves with the aircraft: the climb after takeoff, every turn, the descent. Nothing is connected to the aeroplane; the phone’s own motion sensors and GPS do all of it.

Coming soon for Android and iOS

The six-pack panel in the initial climb: moving map on the left, attitude indicator showing seven degrees nose up, altimeter, vertical speed and the other instruments — Initial climb out of Munich, as the panel shows it.

What you see

Six instruments, drawn like the real thing and labelled with what they really measure.

ATT
Attitude indicator
Pitch and bank from the phone’s motion sensors, once you have levelled the phone at the gate.
TC
Turn coordinator
Rate of turn with slip ball, from the same sensors.
ALT
Altimeter
Altitude from GPS, not from cabin pressure.
VS
Vertical speed
Climb and descent from GPS.
TRK
Heading indicator
Track over the ground from GPS, not magnetic heading.
GS
Airspeed indicator
Ground speed from GPS, not airspeed.

How it works

Level once at the gate. Lay the phone where it will stay, press LVL, and the attitude indicator knows which way is up from then on, in the climb as well as in turns.
GPS does the rest. Altitude, vertical speed, track and ground speed come from GPS. A window seat helps the reception; airplane mode is fine, GPS keeps working without a network.
Honest about estimates. When GPS has no fix, and on phones that lack the sensors for it, the app estimates the values and marks them clearly, so you always know what is measured and what is estimated.

Also on board

Full-screen moving map over France with the planned route to Porto, the flown track and the aircraft symbol — **Offline moving map.** The planned route, the flown track, the airports along the way and the time to go. Everything is on the phone; nothing is downloaded in flight.

The planning sheet with departure airport Munich, destination Porto and the weather row showing no severe-weather warning — **Plan the flight.** Pick departure and destination, and the app loads the current severe-weather warnings along the route before you leave the ground.

The flight page with takeoff time, estimated flight time, distance flown, distance to go and the records of the flight — **Flight log.** Times, distance, detour, maximum altitude and speed, cabin pressure; every flight goes into an archive you can export as GPX.

The six-pack panel in the cruise at flight level 360 with ground speed 850 km/h — **Cruise.** Level flight at 36,000 ft, 850 km/h over the ground, track 274 degrees.

The glass skin: an airliner-style primary flight display with speed tape, attitude, altitude tape and track scale, in the climb through 27,000 ft — **Glass.** The same data as an airliner-style flight display: speed and altitude tapes, the attitude in the middle, the track scale below. Switch skins in the menu.

The HUD skin: a monochrome green head-up display with pitch ladder, ground speed 854 km/h and altitude 35,900 ft in the cruise — **Head-up display.** Monochrome green, pitch ladder and the numbers only, for a phone held against the window.

Entertainment onlyPilot’s Seat is a toy for passengers. It is not a navigation aid and not connected to the aircraft; its readings can differ from the real instruments, especially right after takeoff and in turns. Never use it for any flight decision.

Privacy

Location and motion data stay on your phone. There is no account and no advertising. The app can send anonymous crash reports to help fix errors, and you can switch them off in the app. Details: privacy policy (English and German) and support.