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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?

What’s the best way to learn cross country flight planning?

John Ewing has recently written a lengthy post about cross country flight planning where he noted that the introduction and use of new technologies or techniques in flying will raise interesting new questions, such as the following:

Should student pilots be taught to use paper charts, plotter, pencil, and a slide rule E6B or encouraged to switch entirely to electronic charts, calculators, GPS and computer-based weather briefings?

In reply to his question, John wrote that the best way to learn the complicated process of cross country flight planning is to combine “old school” methods with “waay cool” new technologies. He then proceeds to go into considerable detail about how to do this.

However, one interesting point that John brought up was that so-called “old school” pilots and instructors are correct to claim that a student who has never drawn a course line on a paper chart will be robbed of an important lesson about Magnetic declination. On the other hand, John also noted that with the right data, a computer will probably do a much faster and more accurate job than a human would. 

John also pointed out that while old school paper chart adherents may claim that paper charts are foolproof because they will not require batteries, can be handled or folded and can be used by less tech savvy pilots, they also have serious disadvantages. After all, paper charts can get torn, lost or too marked up from previous flight planning efforts to be read. More importantly, all paper charts will eventually become obsolete as they do not update by themselves.

John’s lengthy post about cross country flight planning is well worth reading and it should be noted that this particular post is the first installment of a multi-part series of posts about the revolutionary changes occurring in VFR cross-country flight planning. In future posts, John will discuss how technology is already changing calculators, navigation log preparation tools and in-flight diversions.

New aviation iPad and iPhone apps

John Ewing has written a post for his Aviation Mentor blog where he has reviewed or mentioned a few new aviation iPad/iPhone applications. These new apps include:

AirWx. A handy app for getting a quick view of an area’s weather before getting an official weather briefing. There is no recurring subscription price and the cost is just US$10. In other words, buy once and use forever.   

CFITools Preflight Wx. This integrated tool will help you with several important pre-flight planning tasks, namely weather, runway lengths and takeoff/landing performance for various types of aircraft. For example: Just enter a departure airport for a graphic representation of the winds along with the airport’s runways plus a headwind and crosswind component for these runways. The app will also provide a historical plotting of altimeter, ceiling, dew point, visibility and winds – all for only US$30.

Radio Navigation Trainer. This final app is great for both student pilots who are still trying to master VOR and NDB navigation or any pilot who spends a considerable amount of time staring at glass panels as the app will display two navaids of your choice. The price is only US$2.

John ended his post by asking readers to comment about their favorite aviation iPad/iPhone apps and we invite you to do the same – especially about any aviation iPad/iPhone app specifically meant for the UK.

airwx2

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. 

iPad 2

Is the iPad a godsend or just another gadget for pilots?

The January edition of the AOPA Online Pilot Magazine had a must read article about the Apple iPad and its use in the cockpit that began by noting that:

If an aviation company offered a moving-map GPS with a 10-inch display, a nation’s worth of charts and approach plates, flight planning, weather, a full aviation library, and the basic functions of a computer all for around $630, every pilot would own one. That’s just what the Apple iPad is offering. So why doesn’t every pilot have one? Like every new product with lots of hype, there’s more to the story.

The article then went on to cover specific iPad in the cockpit issues such as heat and altitude, sunlight readability and mounting the device and it also included a video panel discussion about the device with Jason Miller of ForeFlight and aviation blogger Max Trescott.

In addition, the AOPA article noted that there are now more than 130 aviation applications available that range from comprehensive packages that include planning tools, weather information, charts and airport directories to more basic and task-specific offerings. The article then went into some detail about the following more popular iPad cockpit applications:

  • Foreflight (US$74.99 a year)
  • Sky Charts Pro (US$19.99 for a year of chart updates)
  • Flight Guide iEFB (US$19.99 for the Pro version)
  • WingX (US$99 a year)
  • MyRadar (Free)
  • DUAT (Free)

The AOPA article ended by noting that:

What puts the iPad over the top as a must-buy gadget is, ironically, its use outside of aviation. If you’re going on a weekend trip in the airplane, having an iPad means no longer having to pack your laptop, your books and magazines, or a GPS for the rental car. For that reason alone, it is worth the cost.

Hence, we would like to ask you our readers whether or not you already own and use the Apple iPad in the cockpit. Moreover and for those of you who already do have and use one, do you find it to be just another gadget or is it a godsend device?

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Using iPads in the cockpit

In case you do not already have an iPad or if you do and you have not considered using one in the cockpit, check out this short video segment from Channel 9 News in Denver Colorado about the use of the iPad in the cockpit by general aviation pilots. The segment interviewed pilot Charles Schneider who (along with a business partner) has also designed a form-fitting iPad kneeboard while his company has also organized a website called mygoflight.com for pilots to easily organize and find iPad applications for their pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight routines. Both the short video segment and Charles’ website are well worth checking out.