Powerpoints up front

[Bandit650]

Do any flightdecks have US/european power points in these days???

[Pilot Pete]

yes, some do.

PP

[Bandit650]

cheers:ok:

basis of quiestion:

was curious as I glanced upon a posting where the poster was referring to doing something on his laptop during a long cruise....hence my question...

if you had some stuff to read on a long cruise, work related obviously, I assume you couldn't feasibly get your laptop out on the flight deck? it could,for example, prohibit control inputs if you needed to lurch for the control yoke/stick pdq?

[Pilot Pete]

A laptop blocks the controls (on a Boeing, with a yolk!) less than a tray full of food... ;)

In my airline, all our manuals are on a laptop now and many of the aircraft have powerpoints fitted, interestingly enough though, only US spec as that is all that Boeing would certify......

PP

[Bandit650]

Interesting...didnt realise airline ops are making use of IT to such an extent...am doing an ATPL having come from an IT background (programming) so looks like there will be no escape...even on the flightdeck!

[Dan Winterland]

Airbus aircraft come with a laptop as an option. There is a 115v power socket in the cockpit and a dedicated stowage for the laptop. However, when plugging in your laptop into any aircraft supply, check the frequency. Although most laptop power adapters can take 115v, they don't like 400hz. I found this out to my cost!

[Pilot Pete]

Interestingly we are one of the few airlines attempting to go 'e-flightdeck'. In theory this is great, in reality a little harder and more complicated than would first appear.

We have lost all copies of the Jepp manuals from the crewrooms, which is a real pain as now we have to log on to Jeppesen via the internet, load up their viewer, find the airport you want, then call up the individual charts. Don't even think about getting away ontime if you need to check the Text Manual, which has no bookmarks in a 700 odd page document!!!!!!

We duplicate an awful lot of paperwork data, which 'e-flightdeck' may address, in time, having spent considerable money too.

What it is very good for is T/O performance. We just plug in the airport ID, runway, any intersection available, weather conditions, config requirements (like flap or EAI), runway state and any limitations like reduced TORA and press 'execute', out comes the flap, derate, V speeds and flap retraction altitude. It also lists any emergency turn procedure upon which the performance is based. Very useful and this one saves time and is a lot harder to make a simple mistake with. The company are working on a landing performance program too, which will be a great help over the Performance Inflight manuals for the various types we operate, some which include a factor for wet runways, some which don't etc etc.

The aircraft that have power supplies have them retrofitted, one point that seems obvious to me that appears to have been an oversight was placing these powerpoints just below the cup holder on the 757s!:rolleyes:

We have a spare battery and our own issue laptops, some airlines only allocating a laptop to the individual airframes. Two batteries is enough to get through a 'normal' day, if you have extended use then the power point is useful, but remember you will have to lug your adaptor plug, transformer and cables around with you in your flightbag, as well as the laptop, spare battery and all the rest of the junk you need.

'E-flightdeck', nice concept, but give me loose leaf paper approach charts anyday, so that I can have two or three on display at the same time, one on the yolk in front of me whilst I am struggling in a 40kt crosswind and just need to check something.;)

PP

[Jinkster]

I wonder if broadband will appear in the flight deck soon!

[Pilot Pete]

Yeah, good idea, then we could look at the Jepps inflight!!!

PP

[3Greens]

On BA 757s' there is a powerpoint in the flightdeck. Have to be vareful though as i understand it's not a regulated output so is prone to frequency spikes that can damage laptops. Something along the lines of whats' mentioned above. that said, many do use their laptops on the flighdeck!

[Bandit650]

I suppose its just a question of time before a new display is incorporated on the instrument panel which displays jepp plates/airport diags etc from an onboard database? perhaps also optionally superimposing a/c position on the plates....as a back up ref?. Next step after that, of course, would be heads up 3d view of the approach sequence in the windshield...similar to "fly through the boxes" in MS Flightsim?!

Perhaps I'll see that before I retire (assuming I get hired of course), which is now likely to be in 30years time as opposed to 25yrs thanks to 60-65 :)

re: broadband on the flightdeck...narh. Possibly too much of a distraction, especially considering all those wonderful aviation webites you can visit these days;) (I am of course referring to, the one, and only, pprune!)

[Lucifer]

There was another thread on this recently - in short, you have to be careful that it is a modulated supply, which the standard output on many plug points installed is not.

Check it is a dedicated point basically! That is why the in seat power supply adapter is a big heavy modulator: to protect the computers.

[BizJetJock]

Bandit 650
The (10 year old) aeroplane I'm flying this week has wireless broadband throughout the aircraft, although we are discouraged from frivolous use due to the $10 per minute connection charge! Also just about every new model of bizjet from the smallest Citations up to the G550 has displays just like you're describing - so it's all here already!

[Bandit650]

Now I wanna fly bizjets even more :p

Remember sitting in the front seat of a Lear (on the ground) at Little River CA whilst hour building in '96...was only sight of a bizjet fltdeck every had, so have no idea how sophisticated the glass is these days. The pilot asked for my contact details and said if they ever needed a relief pilot on a longer trip he'd give me a call...never did tho:sad:(although was a great dream for a while!). Very very nice machines.............been told some bizjet operators do take lowhour ATPLs but have no hard facts...

Cheers:ok:

[Silverspoonaviator]

The G550, as well as many corporate aircraft not only have Jepps on a screen in the cockpit, but also an aircraft symbol, moving in real time, to show your location on chart.

Assuming the chart is to scale, you can taxi using this chart, combibed with the EVS, no outside visible references required.

We have 2x 110v AC regulated outputs on either side of the flight deck. Not certain of power loading, but asume about 500 watts per socket. So not enough for the portable kettle, to prepare Pot Noodles.

In the cabin we have 110 and 240V sockets, next to the Cabin Network connectots, and the flat screen TV, driven by the DVD players.

In the cockpit, we also have a Tea / Coffee / Me button too. However this is locked out unless cruise power selected on master contol panel.

Never tried it from the cockpit, did not have long enough network cable, but I can access (albeit slow), ground based ISP via the sat phone and my lap top.

In fact better than home, ( the Me option inhibited) or about the same as a XXXXX hotel.

Happy Xmas....

[Jinkster]

Never tried it from the cockpit, did not have long enough network cable, but I can access (albeit slow), ground based ISP via the sat phone and my lap top.

Just interested - i bet the internat over sat phone costs a pretty penny!!!!

[redsnail]

The latest Hawker 800XP or should I say XPi come with a moving majenta aeroplane on the taxi and ILS charts (where supported).

Avionics is the Collins Proline 21. Very nice piece of kit.