Electronic Flight Bag Archives - Page 2 of 2

Goodbye heavy flight bags as more commercial pilots start to use iPads

Lately, there have been a growing number of news reports that commercial pilots are increasingly replacing their flight bags with the much lighter iPads. Specifically and back in June, Terry Maxon reported on the Dallas Morning News’ Airline Biz Blog that American Airlines’ pilots had begun a test on two trans-Pacific flights in which they would keep all of their charts and other documents on iPads. The test would last for 6 months on American’s flights from Los Angeles to Shanghai and Tokyo Narita.

Terry also noted that Alaska Airlines had announced back in May that it would distribute iPads to all of its pilots by mid-June and the iPads would contain all of the pilots’ flight manuals. Alaska Airlines was also looking at putting its navigational charts on the devices as well.

Meaning, the “Wings Stayed On!” blog has pointed out that Alaska Airlines’ two initiatives, dubbed “Bye, Bye, Flight Bag,” is also environmentally friendly as they will save 2.4 million pieces of paper.

However, I have just one question: What happens if a commercial pilot forgets to recharge his iPad?!!

Paper cockpit verses a paperless cockpit: A cost comparison

Gary, the blogger behind Gary’s Flight Journal, has recently written a post where he calculated the costs of a paper cockpit verses a paperless cockpit. For his example, he included everything east of the Mississippi River and came up with the following costs:

PAPER = $846.00
3 AFD’s @ $5.00 each, every 56 days, say six orders – $90
12 IAP’s @ $6.00 each, every 56 days, say six orders – $432
10 ENR’s @ $3.00 each, every 56 days, say six orders – $180
12 VFR @ $6.00 each, semi annual – $144
PAPERLESS = $149.99 w/iPad $800.00
ForeFlight HD (1 Year)
Moving map, weather, plates, charts, AF/D, and filing. $74.99
ForeFlight Pro (1 Year)
Adds geo-referenced instrument procedures and diagrams $149.99
* Lets figure in the cost of an iPad with Wifi-3G, 32GB $650
**The cost of foreflight includes the ability for radar, satellite, IFR enroute (high or low), VFR sectional, fuel prices, flight rules, winds, temperatures, dew point spreads, ceilings, sky coverage, lightning, and more for the entire US.

In this particular example, the cost of having a paperless cockpit were lower than the costs of having a paper filled cockpit. Moreover, Gary noted that the costs for subsequent years will fall as a pilot would only need to subscribe to foreflight at $75 basic and $150 geo-referenced a year.

Hence, we want to ask our UK and European readers to see if anyone has calculated the costs of a paper cockpit verses a paperless cockpit for the UK or continental Europe. If so, what figures did you come up with?

The iPad 2 as an electronic flight bag

If you already own or are thinking of owning an iPad 2 as an electronic flight bag, a lengthy post by John Ewing for his Aviation Mentor blog is a must read as he gave his initial impression of using the device in flight. John began his post by noting that between aircraft maintenance and the weather, getting into the air with the new iPad has been a problem but he finally managed to do so for a 1.9 hour flight.

So far, John can give the following impressions of the iPad 2 as an electronic fight bag:

It has a slightly smaller size and thinner profile – making it much lighter than the original iPad.
There are two built-in cameras, one that is front-facing and one that is rear-facing. However, John also noted that the rear camera “sucks” and he is not even sure why Apple bothered to have one at all.
When loading a terminal procedure from ForeFlight, Jeppesen’s app or SkyCharts Pro, the faster graphics performance will be evident. Also, downloading and scrolling around on charts is much faster as well.
The screen is not much different from the original iPad (however, there is a wider range of brightness offered) while battery life is on par with the original model as well – about 10 hours.
The GNS 5870 Bluetooth GPS Receiver will work just as well with the iPad2 as it does with the original iPad. However, John has one complaint about the touchiness of the swipe-style on/off switch as he noted that its too easy to inadvertently turn the thing on when stowing it in your flight bag.
The accelerometer, gyroscope and compass features all seem to still indicate that there is not yet an app that is capable of providing accurate Attitude Heading and Reference (AHARs) features. Hence, the notion of using an iPad in flight as a back-up attitude indicator is still far from reality.

John ended his post by recommending a list of nearly twenty aviation applications that he has already tried out on his iPad 2 and are well worth taking a closer look at if you already have your own iPad 2 as an electronic flight bag.

Mounting and using an iPad in the cockpit

John Ewing, the blogger behind the Aviation Mentor blog, has searched long and hard for a suitable electronic flight bag (EFB) but recently he purchased an iPad and after using if for a few weeks, he has written a post with more useful observations about using one in the cockpit.

Besides covering the use of the SkyCharts Pro application and other applications, John covered the important topic of how to properly mount an iPad in the cockpit. This included physically mounting one to the cockpit and kneeboard options. However and as John pointed out in his post, these options have their pluses and minuses.

At the end of his post, John noted that he hasn’t accessed a paper chart during his last few weeks of flying although he still carries a few just in case. Moreover, he concluded his post by saying that with the iPad, his dream of a paperless cockpit is almost here.

Un-cluttering the cockpit

If the cockpit of your aircraft is starting to resemble the inside of your car (and we don’t mean this in a positive way!), it might be time to consider getting better organized. Hence, Paul Tocknell’s recent post about clutter in the cockpit (or specifically, ways to un-clutter the cockpit) is well worth reading. Some of his simple and easy to implement suggestions include:

Wear cargo pants that have pockets EVERYWHERE.
Come up with your own checklist to reduce the amount of paperwork.
Create your own flight plan form.

Paul then proceeds to recommend a number of simple products such as kneeboards, clipboards and cockpit organizers that will help you to keep organized in the cockpit.

However, Paul does not mention anything about electronic flight bags (EFBs) – an idea that John Ewing of Aviation Mentor has pursued for some time and we have covered in a couple of previous posts (The Kindle DX as an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), Revisiting the Electronic Flight Bag (EFB): The Modbook and Choosing a poor man’s electronic flight bag (EFB)). An electronic flight bag (EFB) is probably the ultimate way to un-clutter the cockpit but as John has found, finding or creating a suitable EFB is not easy. Hence, Paul’s post with simple and easy to follow suggestions is well worth reading – especially by pilots who are less technology savvy.

The Kindle DX as an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB)

We have been following John Ewing’s quest to find a suitable Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), including his recent but failed attempt to convert his Macbook into a Modbook to use as an EFB (it failed after a few weeks due to a “jumping” cursor problem). Recently though, a reader lent John his Kindle DX to test and evaluate as an EFB and John has posted a detailed review about using one in the cockpit.

Now in case you are not familiar with the Kindle DX, the device is a combination hardware and software wireless reader that can hold up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents (it was developed by Amazon.com and currently retails for US$489 on their site). Given its storage capabilities, a Kindle DX in theory should make an excellent EFB.

However, while John found plenty to like about the hardware, he soon discovered that the Kindle DX’s software to be woefully lacking due to the lack of bookmark or hyperlink support. Without these features, it is difficult to sort through, organize and access information – especially in the cockpit while flying. Moreover, the device cannot be used like a tablet computer to take notes with.

Hence, for those pilots out there who already have a Kindle DX and were considering using it as an EFB – you are better off considering another device.