Today, I’d like to introduce a fantastic free app for iPad/iPhone — X-Mapper. It transmits your aircraft’s real-time geographic position during flight to an iPad or iPhone, letting you view the terrain using iOS’s built-in world map or satellite imagery. The realism is 100%.

The photo below was taken with an iPhone while using an iMac and an iPad simultaneously at home. The flight location is near Briançon, France — the highest town in Europe. The shot was taken flying from the town towards the Alps, and you can even see the snow-capped mountains in the distance. However, flying a Cessna 172 here is definitely a foolish move; shortly after, I flew into the clouds and crashed into a mountain, haha.

Alright, let me explain how to use it. First, download this app from the Apple App Store, Then launch X-Mapper, and it will display the setup instruction screen, As long as your computer and iPad/iPhone are on the same network segment, Go to the Net Connections option in X-Plane’s Settings menu. Under Advanced or iPhone/iPad, Check the box for “IP of iPhone X-Plane REMOTE” or “IP of iPad running EFIS-App”, And enter the IP address and port number displayed on X-Mapper, for example, 192.168.11.3 and 49000 as shown in the image above, and you are good to go.

Once setup is complete, X-Mapper will automatically display your aircraft’s current location within X-Plane, And smoothly move the map as the aircraft flies, so you don’t need to constantly open X-Plane’s map to check your current position, You can simply enjoy your sightseeing flight.

Updated on May 10, 2017

X-Mapper TNG is the new version compatible with X-Plane 11.