Don't you guys have the toughbook? Us Orange chaps are using them more and more, e.g. Mel items are selected and gives us instant performance figures for any unserviceability. How can you call for figures? Do they fax or email them to someone so you have a hard copy before you depart? After 2pm of course!!
Just imagine a 1960s flightdeck where paper is king. The airline wasted £2m on an efb based upon mobile phone technology for updating. Despite being told by numerous external sources that it would never work, the major project manager persevered, often changing items of the hardware himself without any technical qualifications. We are now left with some very expensive ipad sized chart holders we afix the paper charts to.
We still get a paper loadsheet and consult a paper manual for performance figures. If you need any abnormal performance you make a call on the usually absent or dead aircraft mobile phone, hoping that it is during office hours and somebody will answer the phone.
Last edited by tubby linton; 5th Jan 2015 at 20:33.