Flyover Country
Mar 14, 2016, 1:00 am
#1
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Flyover Country
Smithsonian Magazine:
What Are You Flying Over? This App Will Tell You
Available in Android and iOS versions at Flyover Country:
Flyover Country uses maps and geology databases to identify features of the landscape as a plane flies over them, no Wifi necessary
<snip>
Flyover Country uses maps and data from various geological and paleontological databases to identify and give information on the landscape passing beneath a plane. The user will see features tagged on a map corresponding to the ground below. To explain the features in depth, the app relies on cached Wikipedia articles. Since it works solely with a phone’s GPS, there’s no need for a user to purchase in-flight wifi. Sitting in your window seat, you can peer down on natural features like glaciers and man-made features, such as mines, and read Wikipedia articles about them at the same time. If you're flying over an area where dinosaur bones have been discovered, you can read about that too. Curious about why the river below you bends the way it does? The app will tell you that as well.
<snip>
<snip>
Flyover Country uses maps and data from various geological and paleontological databases to identify and give information on the landscape passing beneath a plane. The user will see features tagged on a map corresponding to the ground below. To explain the features in depth, the app relies on cached Wikipedia articles. Since it works solely with a phone’s GPS, there’s no need for a user to purchase in-flight wifi. Sitting in your window seat, you can peer down on natural features like glaciers and man-made features, such as mines, and read Wikipedia articles about them at the same time. If you're flying over an area where dinosaur bones have been discovered, you can read about that too. Curious about why the river below you bends the way it does? The app will tell you that as well.
<snip>
Flyover Country is a National Science Foundation funded offline mobile app for geoscience outreach and data discovery.
Apr 2, 2016, 1:05 am
#8
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SAN
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Talk about a bad name for an app. "Flyover Country" is usually a bigoted term used by the far left to belittle and demean regions of the US that tend to hold political views that diverge from the coastal areas. Haven’t checked the app out and probably wont no matter how great it might be simply because of the name choice alone portrays the authors as bigoted. They should probably change that.
Apr 2, 2016, 1:11 am
#9
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Talk about a bad name for an app. "Flyover Country" is usually a bigoted term used by the far left to belittle and demean regions of the US that tend to hold political views that diverge from the coastal areas. Haven’t checked the app out and probably wont no matter how great it might be simply because of the name choice alone portrays the authors as bigoted. They should probably change that.
The name sounds like typical scientist humor to me.
Apr 2, 2016, 1:16 am
#10
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Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Canada, USA, Europe
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Talk about a bad name for an app. "Flyover Country" is usually a bigoted term used by the far left to belittle and demean regions of the US that tend to hold political views that diverge from the coastal areas. Haven’t checked the app out and probably wont no matter how great it might be simply because of the name choice alone portrays the authors as bigoted. They should probably change that.
Apr 9, 2016, 6:39 pm
#12
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: CMH, West Coast
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Could someone explain how this app is supposed to work as if I'm a 5 year old, please? Fooled around with this on the plane the other day and couldn't make heads or tails of the entire concept.
Apr 9, 2016, 9:15 pm
#13
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Join Date: Dec 2009
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Basically, before the start of a trip, click on those same three bars and select the trip mode, air or ground. Then, go back to the map and tap two or more points to draw the route. Tap "Load path" in the upper right and the app will download the information for your path (with a buffer zone). If you're not planning on being connected to WiFi during the flight, click on "Save for offline" (where the "Load path" button was earlier). You can now explore points of interest by tapping on them. In flight, the GPS should display your location on the map.
