I see people ask this a lot, so figured I’d share what I ended up using.
Like most folks, I used to open Google Maps mid flight and quickly realized it’s basically useless once you lose data. It’s built for roads, not planes. What does still work though is your phone’s GPS receiver, even in airplane mode.
I ended up building a small tool for myself that uses only raw GPS. No internet, no WiFi, no cell signal. It can:
show live coordinates, altitude, and speed while in flight
reverse geocode your position using an offline database
work fully in airplane mode, both in the air and on the ground
On the ground it’s very accurate, and it actually works surprisingly well at cruising altitude too, depending on satellite visibility. Key things are getting a GPS fix before takeoff and having a window seat.
There’s no login, no tracking, no ads, no subscriptions. Just a simple offline tool that stays on your phone.
Not posting this as a sales pitch, just sharing something I found genuinely useful. Happy to answer questions or hear feedback from other flyers.
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