Why doesn't my phone GPS work in an aircraft?

[Andre]

Is this the reason?

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/07/gps-units-disable-themselves-if-they-go-faster-than-1200-mph.html

On a recent flight, I turned on the GPS on my Nexus one and held it to the window. 

No luck - my location wasn't found and no satellites were detected.

At the time, I assumed it was the thickness of the aircraft glass.

[hevnsnt]

My handheld garmin works just fine on commercial aircraft.

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[Ray Scheufler]

From what I recall there is a height restriction and a speed restriction. It is supposed to disable when both are met. Some disable when only one us met. This is supposed to prevent people from using them on missiles.

Ray Scheufler

On Jul 29, 2011 3:29 PM, "hevnsnt" <hev...@gmail.com> wrote:

My handheld garmin works just fine on commercial aircraft.

On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 3:25 PM, Andre <andr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Is this the reason?

> ht...

[Andre]

Yeah, the article mentions those limits as 60,000 feet and 1200mph.  I'm pretty sure commercial planes don't touch 1200 mph. And I just found that most passenger jets fly between around 31000 and 37000 feet depending on their weight and the distance being flown.

So it is likely that my phone's GPS was messed up - especially since Garmin's still works.

Maybe the phone GPS requires cell tower triangulation? Has anyone had success with a phone GPS on an airplane?

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[ax0n]

My Garmin GPS12 had absolutely stellar signal inside a 727.  I have a photo of it at 39,551 feet, 377 MPH.

[James Costello]

More than like your phone does what mine does and uses cell towers and wireless to get an initial list of GPS satellites to check. when you are out of range of towers, your phone likely won't find any satellites to connect to.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S and I turn on and off that feature each time I want to use GPS because of battery drain.
Hope that helps.

[Andre]

I just did a little experiment

1. Turned off "Use Wireless networks" for location

2. Put my phone in Airplane mode

3. Reboot

It was still able to get my location (using "GPS Status" app)

I think Samsung phones require the wireless option while my Nexus one does not.

http://www.talkandroid.com/11267-fix-for-samsung-galaxy-s-gps-issues/

My main suspect is again the airplane glass. Maybe it attenuates the signal so much that the phone GPS chip doesn't work but the dedicated GPS units still manage to pick up a weak signal.