Tracking App for iPhone

[Old Koreelah]

Is anyone able to share their experience of tracking apps for iPhone.

 

There are so many available, but most seem to be aimed at jealous spouses. It should be an inexpensive way of leaving a "trail of breadcrumbs" whenever I fly. Ideally I'd like to be able to switch it on only when I'm flying, and control the frequency of position reports. Let's face it, there may be situations where you don't have time to activate the beacon, and when we set off for a leisurely weekend fly around the district we could end up anywhere. A simple and inexpensive way for the family to see where you are...

 

 

[Guest basscheffers]

Not aware of any good ones. Then there is the issue of being in cell phone range, though at safe altitudes, you have to get very far away from civilisation to not get NextG.

 

I am seriously considering buying one of these this year: http://au.findmespot.com/en/

 

Just over $200 for the device and US$165/year for service. (10-minute updates) Not quite the features as Spyder Tracks has, but it costs a helluvalot less.

 

 

[slartibartfast]

I've been using TrackMe for WinCE for a while. It works well.

 

See the thread here for a Google Earth link or 2 to show what it can do.

 

I found a reference to Luis Espinosa selling the product to a company who were then going to work on an iPhone version, but I can't find them.

 

However, I found this. It says the service is free. Why not try it out and report back here?

 

Cheers,

 

Ross

 

PS - here's another one.

 

PPS - and another. Here's a vid of this one in action:

 

 

 

[Guest magcheck]

http://www.instamapper.com/iphone is very simple to use, free and I think does most of the things you are after. I have been using it for about 6 months.

 

I like the look of Ross's one above though

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Hello magcheck, thanks for the link; have you been using instamapper for tracking your own flight-ie leaving a trail of breadcrumbs?

 

The instamapper forums indicate limitations- the app must be running in the foreground to register.

 

I need to have mine running in the background- a GPS display is running in the foreground.

 

I don't have unlimited data; can you turn it off when not flying?

 

 

[Guest magcheck]

Hi, I have used instamappa but it won't run in the background, I don't think there has been any development for awhile either. You can control it update rate or manually do it as well.

 

I have used a spot a fair few times and to be honest I think it is better then any of the phone trackers I have tried, turn it on and every 10 mins it updates your position with an advantage that anyone watching you gets an auto refresh on your map tacking page automatically .

 

To keep a good track for post flight review and collecting I still think an old gps with a track recording function serves the best

 

 

[gregrobertson]

Try Motion X GPS I think it will do all you want. GPS seems to work well and has a tracking facility also. Check it out.

 

Regards

 

Greg

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Thanks for the suggestion, Greg. It looks like it has far more functions than I am likely to need, but it looks like you have to manually email a report of your track after you've travelled it. I have contacted them to see if there is a breadcrumbs function.

 

"Free to existing users" is interesting- I couldn't find a price, but I guess it may be more than the $1.19 I paid for my current GPS app!

 

 

[gregrobertson]

From memory a whole $3.99 you can save your tracks. I don't know if you can download them anywhere. I have never bothered with that and probably wouldn't know how anyway, it's all getting more complicated by the day.

 

Regards

 

Greg

 

 

[Jayz]

I also use InstaMapper GPS TRacker for iphone i think is great and its free

 

 

[flyingflea125]

I have been using InstaMapper for last 12 months, works fine and u can save trip data and share.