iOS has had the so-called airplane mode for years. Indeed primarily intended for use in a (flying) aircraft. What exactly does that function do?
Not so long ago you were required to turn off your mobile or tablet on an airplane. When these devices became very widespread, this naturally led to complaints. After all, a smartphone is much more than a phone, you can also play games with it, for example, or use it as an e-reader. But yes, the transmitters present in the smartphone (think of the GSM part, of course, but also Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) may cause malfunctions and deviations in the sensitive equipment in the aircraft. Whether that is actually the case is still somewhat doubtful. However, if there are - just to name a few - 180 passengers on board with all switched on mobiles and continuously connecting to different cell towers, we can imagine a potential problem. And while some airlines now allow the use of mobile phones on board during the flight, this is - quite rightly - far from being the case everywhere.
Off and yet on
Fortunately, you no longer have to completely switch off a (modern) smartphone on board. This is thanks to the so-called airplane mode. In this position (accessible in iOS via the Settings app and the switch Flight mode) all transmitting devices are turned off. For example, mobile telephony and data traffic no longer work, Wi-Fi is turned off and Bluetooth is also out of the air. The latter means that, for example, a wireless Bluetooth headset in an airplane will not work. This can often be solved by connecting such headphones to your device via the (supplied) cable. Don't forget to take that cable with you in your hand luggage, along with your headphones. And also not the possibly necessary adapter as needed for, for example, the newer iPhones that do not have a headphone jack. In any case, you can still enjoy your music or a movie - with sound - in a wired configuration.
GPS
What also works in airplane mode these days is the GPS receiver. At least that is the case with, for example, the iPhone with the latest version of iOS. Handy and fun, because that way you can see exactly where you are during the flight. You can even just use your navigation app for this. Choose an app that uses offline maps, or download - if possible - the maps of the area you are going to fly over in your favorite navigation or GPS app before departure. After all, an internet connection in the air is not available, so that, for example, the calibrated Google Maps will not work (properly). If you use a navigation app, don't forget to set the volume on your smartphone or tablet to zero. Otherwise, the warnings about exceeding the speed limit and other things will fly around you. Furthermore, in TomTom, for example, the overview map view seems to work best. Once the map jumps to 3D view, the app tries to match the position to a road, resulting in a jumpy image.
