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Old 17th Aug 2012, 09:40
  #48 (permalink)  
Flylogical
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: UK
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Paper not a requirement ? Great !

I'm pleased (and pleasantly surprised) to learn from peterh337 that paper plates are not a a legal requirement. Is the requirement (for private, non-commercial IFR) only that I am carrying the most up-to-date plates on-board (and therefore they can be electronic, e.g., Jep TC on iPad) ? Very good if true.

Regarding printing out everything before flight, I do the same. However, this is not always possible/practical (e.g., when in a location without a printer or a printer which has run out of paper etc). In those circumstances, I tend to use email-attached PDF versions of all important planning docs (even Jep software which annoyingly doesnt render PDF directly can be made to comply by using a PDF printer driver on the PC, for example -- "Bullzip PDF" is an excellent little app I use for this purpose). By carrying two smartphones plus an iPad, all of which can extract PDF docs from email, with all the relevant docs pre-loaded into device memory on the ground before flight (i.e., when there is a reliable 3G or Wifi connection) I can honestly say I've never had the situation where I could not get reliable access to a PDF doc in-flight.

The biggest advantage of the iPad-plus-moving-map-app is the ease of which a route can be quickly created or uploaded. By contrast, I find that the GNS 430 is a (relative) "dog" to configure in detail especially if/when short of time. As such, these days, I tend to pre-plan with printouts or PDF, then simply apply successive "Direct-To" actions on the 430 when in-flight, referring to the printout-or-PDF to obtain the next waypoint to use. This at least is quick and easy compared with entering/editing entire routes via the multiple knobs and menus....It would be very nice to be able to rely on the iPad for all of this...but in my experience it is not sufficiently robust, so I don't. Yes, as pointed out by flybymike, stuffing it between the seats may be the cause of the problems I experience, but there is simply nowhere else to put it in my cockpit without causing undue clutter, I'm afraid...

Last edited by Flylogical; 17th Aug 2012 at 09:44.
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