Cockpit — IFR Flight Display

A primary flight display that runs on the device already in your flight bag.

Cockpit turns the gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer and GPS in your phone, tablet or Chromebook into an attitude indicator, airspeed tape, altimeter, vertical speed indicator and compass, laid out the way a glass cockpit lays them out.

Version 2.0 is a complete rewrite of an app first published in 2008. It looks the way it always has. Everything behind it is new.


A HORIZON THAT STAYS HONEST IN A TURN

An accelerometer cannot tell gravity from centrifugal force. Every phone attitude indicator has to solve that, and most do not: roll into a coordinated turn and the horizon drifts back towards level while you are still banked.

Here the attitude comes from the gyroscope, and the acceleration of the turn itself is worked out of the reading using GPS ground speed. Bank into a turn and the horizon shows the bank you are actually flying. Accelerate down the runway and the nose stays where you put it.


A REAL ALTIMETER

Altitude comes from the barometer with your own altimeter setting applied, not from GPS height. Set it in inches or hectopascals, drop to standard 29.92 with one tap for the climb through the transition altitude, or match it to your GPS altitude. Negative altitudes read correctly, for fields below sea level and for standard pressure on a high day.

Devices without a barometer fall back to GPS altitude and say so on screen. Below Android 14 the GPS altitude is height above the ellipsoid rather than above sea level, so matching the altimeter to it is disabled there and the field elevation is used instead.


VERTICAL SPEED THAT ANSWERS IMMEDIATELY

Vertical acceleration is blended with the barometer, so the needle moves in a fraction of a second instead of lagging behind a once-a-second pressure reading, and it still cannot drift.


NOTHING TO SET UP

Down is simply where gravity points. Hold the device upright and the horizon is level. If your cradle holds it at an angle, fly straight and level and press TRIM once.

Landscape and portrait, on a phone, a tablet or a Chromebook. Turn the device in its holder and the horizon rolls with it without disturbing the pitch.


ON THE DISPLAY

• Attitude indicator with pitch ladder, bank scale and slip indicator
• Airspeed tape with the operating range arcs for your aeroplane
• Altimeter with rolling digits, altitude bug and a fine deviation scale
• Vertical speed indicator
• Compass ribbon with heading bug and rate of turn
• Six second trend vectors on speed and altitude
• Optional G load
• Classic and Glass colour schemes
• A live sensor page showing every raw value


V-SPEEDS FOR YOUR AEROPLANE

Presets for the Cessna 172, Piper PA-28, Diamond DA40, Cirrus SR22 and gliders, or enter your own stall, flap and never-exceed speeds and the arcs follow.


DEMO FLIGHT

Try everything without leaving the ground. The demo flies a circuit from the runway: take-off roll, climb out, a steep turn, and back down to land. It is a genuine flight model rather than an animation, so the instruments agree with each other. Roll into the steep turn and watch the load factor rise and the airspeed decay with it.


BUILT FOR THE COCKPIT

The screen stays awake, the refresh rate can be capped to save battery on a long leg, and the whole display scales from a phone to a 13-inch tablet or a Chromebook in a window. On a keyboard, TRIM, the altimeter and the selected altitude are all one keypress away.


HONEST ABOUT WHAT IT IS

This is a training and situational-awareness aid built on consumer sensors, not a certified instrument. The speed tape shows GPS ground speed and is labelled GS, because there is no pitot tube in a phone. Never use this app as a primary reference for aircraft control or navigation.