I have tried and tried to use an Ipad2...
It works well as an
approach plate display device - basically it makes an excellent PDF document reader.
What the above pic doesn't show is that while the LS800 (a long outdated product costing £1800+VAT in 2005) remains readable
even in direct sunlight, the Ipad is nearly invisible in that case, and that is with the £25 matt filter on it (in the above pic).
So, in a cockpit with big windows, and sunshine (in high altitude IFR one is in sunshine 99% of the time) one has to orientate an Ipad suitably, and this is sometimes awkward. But it clearly works.
However I also try to use it as a moving map GPS, because that is primarily what my LS800 does. On it, I have the "real printed" VFR charts for all of Europe, so I can always see airports, CAS, terrain, etc for emergency use, and for VFR hacking around the UK.
And it fails miserably there, because I have not yet found any way to run European VFR charts (of whatever origin, legal or not) on it. Once Oziexplorer becomes available for IOS, that will solve that issue, but currently only MM runs, and with only UK maps.
And the built-in GPS is crap. It gets a fix OK in the air, after a few mins, but it loses it readily too, and MM does not indicate this. You just notice the map has stopped moving.... I made some enquiries and apparently the IOS API does not pass the application the detailed satellite status, which sounds incredible
I have never seen a GPS that bad. Many GPSs integrated into electronic products won't get a fix when airborne (satellite phone GPSs chief among them, rendering the phone useless) when switched on, but to just lose it randomly is unusual.
So one would have to use an external GPS. I already have a nice bluetooth one, running off a proper rooftop antenna but of course the Apple Politburo decided to not support serial NMEA so it doesn't work. You have to get a special GPS, and none of them have an external antenna input.
So I have given up on the GPS for now, and carry the Ipad sometimes as an approach plate backup. All the main routepack data is still printed on paper
Which makes sense because if you have it on an Ipad, you need a backup for that, but you don't need a backup for paper.
The Ipad will also shut down if too warm. A number of pilots have reported this. It may be related to the use of the plastic flip-cover sleeve.
The Ipad also doesn't have any way to use a satellite phone to get weather. A jailbroken one probably can...
The Ipad cannot do SMS, which is a little hassle when using flight plan filing services which use SMS notifications. It can receive
network-originated SMS but otherwise Apple have blocked SMS functionality deliberately. A jailbroken Ipad does
full SMS.
As regards the Ipad's other applications, you either love it or hate it
It was super for hammering the JAA IR question bank (e.g. Air Law 37 times) while lying on a beanbag, and it's good for document reading anywhere. It's OK for primitive email usage. It's a very good web browser (with some incompatibility issues with sites on which IE and FF work OK). It has some
curious issues (shared with an Iphone4) on auto selection between GPRS/3G and WIFI when both are available, or just available, which sometimes mean you get no internet at all, unless you disable one or the other.
It also cannot connect to a standard bluetooth phone (Nokia E51) for internet access; this is a pity as when abroad one doesn't always want to buy a separate EU Data Bundle just for the SIM card in the Ipad. It works fine with an
E585 which is a very good solution for all kinds of travel stuff.
Oh I nearly forgot... I hate Itunes
It's one of the most horridly written windoze apps. Fortunately there are
programs which can transfer data to an Ipad directly - with various limitations.