What city is that? Is that Lake Arrowhead or just a big puddle? And what's that -- a strip mine in the middle of Ontario?

I like looking out the window at what's down below, but am having a tough time identifying stuff. I've even brought aboard a GPS -- somewhat useful for identifying known landmarks. Most maps are useless, as they don't match the scale of the view and don't include all landmarks. What I really need is some kind of satellite or other photo with landmarks superimposed. It might also help if I could find a site that would detail flight paths.

Any suggestions?

Flying at 32k ft sorta makes almost anything other than the Grand Canyon appear quite small. Occasionally I carry some small 8x21 binoculars for viewing hoping for clear windows and no clouds.

MisterNice

Do North American carriers not have Airshow fitted ?

Flightpaths don't really exist as such on longer flights, especially in North America, as the routes are flexed each flight to take advantage of the most favourable winds, other traffic, etc

A hand-held GPS is undoubtedly your best bet but probably breaks airline regulations about operating radio receivers on board.

IIRC someone posted some months ago about a book with view from the skies - lots of pictures and explanation of what you can see on the ground. Limited to US (maybe Canada too?). Sorry I cant recall the title but perhaps a search on aerial photography and satellite pics may find it.

Once (probably from a commuter flight, don't think it would have looked the same from 35,000+ feet) I saw a building nearly completely surrounded by a bright yellow dotted line. Finally figured out what it was: a school, with school buses waiting to pick up students!

The book mentioned above may be Earth from Above: 366 Days by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, or perhaps his earlier Earth from Above: 365 Days. Most of the photos are from much lower than a commercial flight would be, though.

No, here in the U.S., Airshow is pretty much limited to an internationally-configured aircraft flying a domestic leg.

Also, handheld GPS use onboad aircraft is permitted on many air carriers (I've used mine on AC, AQ, UA, and WN) and I enjoy using mine from time to time to identify landmarks and other Airshow like functions.

There's a thread or two in Travel Technology that discusses onboard GPS use.

Can someone tell me what Airshow is? I've not heard of it before this thread.

Airshow (I tried to find a link to the company but there are hundreds of air display "Airshow" websites) is a system that uses one of the channels on in-flight entertainment on aircraft so fitted to show a moving map display of where you are.

It sequences through maps at various scales, over about a 60 second cycle, from whole continent to local, and draws a red line showing which route the aircraft has followed, and a little plane symbol showing its current heading. It also does text displays of current speed and altitude, etc. It's all driven I believe from a feed from the Flight Management System computer on the flightdeck. It's particularly interesting when you are in a holding pattern seeing which way you are heading !

Where individual seat PTVs are fitted, it's always interesting to walk back through the cabin nowadays and check, as I think more people watch Airshow than the films sometimes. Some airlines also put it up on the main cabin screen when there's no major film in progress. On Airbus A320s with the drop-down screens used for safety briefing videos, but no films, European airlines often show it throughout the flight.

I, for one, find Airshow (or the Moving Map, or whatever the FAs call it) pretty fascinating. I turn it on from time to time during the flight just to see what mysterious landmarks the program will pick to display. The standards of, say, Goose Bay on a flight returning from Europe to the US are always there, but you never know what little towns and other sites are going to show up on there. Sometimes they really mix it up by throwing in places so small that no one but the local residents would have any idea where they are!

I think my favorite Moving Map experience was on a flight from Johannesburg to Cairo several years ago. I was completely in the dark about pretty much every place we flew over (embarrassing to realize how little I know about African geography). And I was also slightly horrified to find that on my last Delta flight, PHL-ATL-LIM, DISNEY WORLD was on the map as a landmark. Complete with trademark symbol. Ugh.

I have an 'Designs on the Land - Exploring America from the Air' although again, it's from a lot lower than commercial aircraft. Some of the strange formations that I used to see though, I can now identify thanks to the books (not specific places but common occurences - perhaps like those school buses) The Skymaps on Virgin have little dolphins and pirate ships animated on the ocean.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...019834-0637228

I'd love for airlines to enhance Skymaps with cameras to show those not by a window what's going on.

I agree with the 'all the small places' - I love when you then jump in the rental car and drive back along part of the flight path and find all those small towns in real life

Flying SFO-LHR a few weeks ago with the moving map while eating my dinner I had to laugh as Pumpkin Buttes in Wyoming showed up!

I find the moving map much more interesting than some of the movies, and always leave it on when I go to sleep so I can wake up in shock to see I have slept for 7hrs

My favourite airshow moment was on EWR-SIN when passing by the north pole the plane symbol was spinning around and around - I guess it couldnt get a handle on the bearing!

I also like to leave it on when sleeping so when wake up I can see if it is worth waking up properly or trying to get back to sleep.

Landmarks shown from NZ on the long haul routes arent nearly so interesting. Too much water around so get x-thousand kilometres to Hawaii, some hours later it is still showing x-thousand kilometres to Hawaii!

There is some specific navigation required for flights across the North Pole due to this problem. I read an article about the CO Newark to Hong Kong flight which described how they have to switch off the GPS navigation systems when about 100 miles from the pole and use alternatives until they are moving well away from it. Or it could be overcome now, as there was some specific GPS testing going on up there a year or two ago with the test aircraft operating out of Keflavik, Iceland.

The North Pole has always given navigation problems. In the earliest days of such flights when they were still using celestial navigation there was a problem with continuous polar twilight at certain times of the year, when the sun was just below the horizon so you couldn't get a fix on it but it was still too light to see the stars with the sextant.

Wyoming is good for such places, as a favourite for flight crews to point out on London to LA flights is Crazy Woman, Wy. It's a major navigation VOR radio beacon (in the middle of nowhere) so shown on the crew's charts.

given the magnetic pole is quite some distance away from the north pole, can they not use that to triangulate bearings?

Unfortunately magnetic north only tells you it is "somewhere that way", without giving you a position along the line. You need something else as well.