iPad or iPhone (GPS)

[BlueJays]

Hi guys

I have recently bought SkyDemon and I was looking at purchasing a yoke mount to attach either my iPad (not mini) or my iphone 5. I fly PA38/PA28 and I'm slightly concerned the iPad will be too large. The clarity is just fantastic, though.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Tom

[ChickenHouse]

I started using the big iPad in cockpit and found it definitely too big to mount on a yoke - size and weight wise.

Only after I switched to Mini I fitted a yoke mount and that was almost ok - given the fact that the yoke tilting iPad screen is not optimum, but the only place to put it in a small cockpit. I am now going from iPhone 5S (on RAM Mount on the side) to iPhone 6Plus and already took the iPad Mini yoke mount off, leaving the iPad Mini on the kneeboard as backup only.

[BlueJays]

Cheers for your reply.

Did you find the size of the 5s sufficient in flight?

[ChickenHouse]

Define "sufficient" ... ;-). I started with a GPSMAP196 and was quite happy with it for a long time, until the first iPad came. The current Retina ones are stunning and carry a lot of information, for my feelings sometime far too much for piloting.

I did fine with the 196, but these older devices present a very limited set of information and need less viewing attention, compared to smartdevice moving maps. With the 5S you will find yourself frequently zooming in, zooming out, panning etc to fulfill your needs - having georef VAC on a 5S with some ICAO charts underlying can be too much useless information.

You could do with a 5S mounted, it may suit you for cruise, but keep the iPad on the kneeboard for situations more complex, or when you need bigger overview.

[BlueJays]

Thank you!

[vandereydt]

I fly with Ipad, and Jepp Mobile Flight deck VFR. works fantastic.

But I am wondering if I should use an external GPS receiver. The Ipad has lost the GPS signal a few times.
Would love to hear your opinion

The size of the IPad is just perfect,

Thx
Ronny

[ChickenHouse]

GPS dropouts are some Vodoo since iOS got this half-multi processing. Did you try placing the iPad at a different spot, or use some other nav software? Some never have this problem, some never get rid of it and some part is the fuselage, some is the software, some is the iOS (sub)version, some may even be the language you run the iOS (own experience with a FD VFR version 1.something, running the iPad at language English was fine, English UK a mess). In the end these device are non-certified helpers and you have to experiment a bit for success.

The typical reaction is purchasing an external GPS, which may solve the problem, but adds one more point of failure - the connection (no free lunch). In case the dropouts are caused by fuselage shadowing it helps definitely, because you can look for a good receiption location, and for some aircraft it is the only possibility. In case you run into tricky threading trouble inside the smartdevice it will not help (same is true in any, may it be Apple or other manufacturer - these are limited portable devices in the end).

In case you are US, I would not think further and get one of these external GPS-ADS-B-WX-TIS boxes, but more to get all the great additional functions provided by great and unique US infrastructure, not neccessarily for GPS stability. But I would also look into other nav software, as I am skeptical of Jeppesens FD VFR approach.