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iPad

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.

iPad

The iPad as an electronic flight bag

John Ewing of Aviation Mentor has searched long and hard for a satisfactory Electronic Flight Bag. In fact, he has about 17 posts (and counting) on the subject. However, John has recently written two posts (iPad: First Impressions and The iPad EFB: One Week of Use) about the new iPad as an electronic flight bag. He also considered several iPad or iPhone applications (ForeFlight Mobile 3, Skycharts Pro and GoodReader) plus he addressed the issue of screen readability and the usability of the iPad itself.

According to John’s reviews, the iPad screen is very readable in the cockpit plus there are a couple of important iPod related aviation applications that are already available for the iPad. However, John did mention some limitations – namely mounting one and using it in the cockpit plus having no satisfactory way of writing with with one and not support Dvorak keyboard mapping.

Nevertheless, John concluded that in spite of some problems and limitations, the iPad is probably the best performing piece of portable hardware that he has used to date in the cockpit. Hence and if you are seriously considering buying spending around US$500 on one to use in the cockpit, reading John’s posts (along with his previous posts about electronic flight bags in general) will be a must.

iPad