Yes – that was my link above – a program called Fly is Fun. Written by someone with a Czech name 
I wonder who updates their database? Can one really run a business model on a one-time £12 fee, relying totally on continued app sales to fund app bug fixes and database updates for ever? I know that is how the Apple and Android appstores run but also the developer of any app has the obvious right to just abandon it, whereas an app like this, if abandoned for a few months, becomes useless.
But if one uses it just for the virtual ILS, that is fine.
Has anyone tried it?
A virtual ILS app should be good for flying the “advisory glideslope” on a SDF approach, using the autopilot’s VS mode (the traditional way) and adjusting the VS up/down to stay on the virtual glideslope, while obviously checking each SDF on the way down. The next best thing to a “W” box.
The Q is whether the iLevil is relevant in this context.
weird – I thought I had posted a different link – http://gps-ils.android.informer.com/
Picking up this old but relevant thread…
I installed the GPS-ILS app on my S6 phone.
Yesterday, into Bournemouth EGHH 26, the LOC was spot on but the GS was pegged on the bottom, all the way down.
Obviously I could not get a photo showing both
Together with the Shoreham EGKA glideslope and platform height being incorrect (mentioned elsewhere here) it doesn’t give me a lot of confidence.
I am reporting all these things to the developer.
I thought somebody said somebody in the UK checked all UK approaches. In fact the GPS-ILS manual says that too.
Together with the Shoreham EGKA glideslope and platform height being incorrect (mentioned elsewhere here) it doesn’t give me a lot of confidence.
The manual that comes with the app describes how you can access the database (one single plain text file!). Maybe it is worth looking into that:
EGHH Boh 26,50.781858,-1.831766,31.0,257.2,1500.0,3.0,-1.95,-156.0
Compared with the Jeppesen plate:
Platform altitude : 1500ft
Slope: 3 degrees
Final course: 257 degrees
Threshold 26 elevation: 31ft
Looks all good to me, I can’t verify the threshold coordinates however.
The problem could be the geoid-correction value (-156 ft for Bournemouth, the last value on the line) which has to be turned on or off depending on the GPS receiver inside your phone. 156ft is quite a lot and may well result in full glideslope deflection.
There are some plots from actual approaches at the end of the manual where everything seems to be perfect. Especially the approach into Heathrow (probably flown by the brother of the developer who flies very large airplanes for a very large german airline).
I can’t comment on the Android App but the threshold position is wrong (not by a lot). The actual WGS84 for threshold RW 26 is
N50.78265920
W001.82691533
That position is accurate to within 20mm which is something better than the Heath-Robinson validation which was completed by an enthusiastic Aztec pilot a couple of years back.
The problem could be the geoid-correction value (-156 ft for Bournemouth, the last value on the line) which has to be turned on or off depending on the GPS receiver inside your phone. 156ft is quite a lot and may well result in full glideslope deflection.
It could have been that. I tried it just now at my office (wooden roof) against the O/Survey 1:50k map (in Memory Map) and it is 200ft off without the correction and 15ft off with it.
Strange – it is almost like the crappy old SIRF-2 chip, which was 150ft out over much of Europe. You would think that a 2015-year phone would do this properly.
Clearly this app should be used with an external EGNOS-capable GPS. Are there any which do NMEA (not IOS) output and can handle multiple bluetooth clients and have an external antenna socket?
I can’t comment on the Android App but the threshold position is wrong (not by a lot)…
It would be wrong for a threshold position, but it belongs to a point along the centreline 250m inbound of the threshold. A 3 degree glideslope projected from this point would cross the threshold at approx. 50ft which is consistent with a normal approach. Unfortunately the manual does not say which point the coordinates actually designate.
Peter wrote:
Strange – it is almost like the crappy old SIRF-2 chip, which was 150ft out over much of Europe. You would think that a 2015-year phone would do this properly.
The lack of geoid correction is a known bug feature of SiRF chipsets. GPS ILS has a geoid correction button – you only need to determine once whether you need it on or off for the given device.
I thought SIRF-3 fixed it, some years ago. Very bad!
Also, GPS-ILS does not save that setting. If I set it ON, exit the app, restart the app, it is set to OFF.
