iPad Software for a Paperless Flight Deck

[Foniac]

Hello all,

Just wondering what software all you guys and girls in the biz aviation world are using on your iPads for a paperless cockpit. At the moment we are utilising ARINC Direct for the digital flight plans and annotations, along with JeppFD for our charts.

Wondering if there was maybe better solutions out there as ARINC Direct does have a few not so good bits about it.

Also, what software does your company use in operations for rosters (if you have them) and advising crew about flights they might be on etc.

Reason I ask about the ops side is the potential for me to create a bespoke system for our company if I can't find anything quite suitable out there for the small biz aviation companies.

[Salto]

We use

- GoodReader for all company, aircraft and operation manuals and for certificates
- Shared calendar (such as google or iCloud) for crew and flight rostering
- Shared (iPad) Reminders (such as google or iCloud) for non-important little notes-to-do like catering, technotes before they can be added into aircraft documents, etc.
- JeppFD for map and charts
- iPreFlight or Guru for take-off and landing computation

OFP and briefings are prepared online and downloadable onto the iPad (or sent by email). But we still use paper-OFP since we believe it is still the most convenient system to take quick notes and have it available to all flight crew members.

But of course we are also striving for improvement…

[glider12000]

Take a look at RocketRoute, well priced, good support with 24/7 telephone and email help with no extra cost.

They are adding new services all the time and have an iOS and Android apps.

Should you need further support they even have a concierge service and the ability to order fuel and handling via apps too.

[B737C525]

My experiences of RocketRoute are not positive. It has potential to be good, so long as you like the workflow it imposes, but has too many weaknesses.

[pilot dude]

Taillog from the bluechap group https://www.bluechap.com. Works with PPS flight plans but instead of annotations on a PDF this one actually calculates ETO and registratrates ATO based on GPS passing of a waypoint. It also gives reminders for fuel checks and calculates fuel remaining based on your input of actual t/o fuel so always up to date fuel numbers. At the end om the flight the Flightlog times are transferred to the Techlog and send via server to the back office. So. I more manual input of times and pilot miscalculations

Downside, it can't compete with the nice dynamic enroute charts/weather charts that the ARINCdirect app has.

[604driver]

ARINC's FOS will do all the ops bits you're looking for, as well as store data locally until you have a data signal so all the tech log data can be sent back to ops/maintenance as well. Really depends how big your flight dept is

[pilot dude]

ARINC's FOS will do all the ops bits you're looking for, as well as store data locally until you have a data signal so all the tech log data can be sent back to ops/maintenance as well. Really depends how big your flight dept is

With FOS you still need Arincdirect for your flight plan and FOS is basically for the bigger flight departments. Not for the corporate operator with 1-2 aircraft and a handful of pilots.

Arinc (or better said Rockwell Collins) should consider making some of the basic FOS options available for ARINCdirect operators. Ideally inside the cloud function of ARINCdirect. From what I remember FOS is installed on the operators computer/server, not cloudbased and from what I also remember more expensive than the ARINCdirect flightplaning acces. So quiet a price for a small operator.

[Journey Man]

Anyone have experience of Leon or FL3XX?

[Foniac]

Had never come across TailLog before so will have a look in to that although not sure they work with Arinc flight plans? Will have to speak to them to see if it could work but the idea of the app sounds good.

@Journey Man: We are currently looking at a Leon as an alternative to AirOps to see if that could work better for us. Seems nice from what we've seen so far, certainly quicker than AirOps and fairly user friendly. Need to do a bit more testing with it though.

[Son of a Beech]

Had never come across TailLog before so will have a look in to that although not sure they work with Arinc flight plans? Will have to speak to them to see if it could work but the idea of the app sounds good.

IMHO ARINC should make the same features with time logging and techlog times that Taillog has and tweek IT up a bit. Then you would have a killer app. Maybe you should talk to Arinc's Development team. Back in the days when i was using ARINCDirect they told me that features like in Taillog where under development so maybe you can give some inputs to the app.

Just out of curiosity. What about arinc don't you like?

[Foniac]

IMHO ARINC should make the same features with time logging and techlog times that Taillog has and tweek IT up a bit. Then you would have a killer app. Maybe you should talk to Arinc's Development team. Back in the days when i was using ARINCDirect they told me that features like in Taillog where under development so maybe you can give some inputs to the app.

Just out of curiosity. What about arinc don't you like?

I've given ARINC a number of feature requests and they do say they'll implement them but can never give a timeframe and can never confirm they even get added to their roadmap.

We don't like the way ARINC handles multiple sector days and multiple flight plans of the same destination. It's leading to a bit of confusion at times for some of the flight deck. Also the fact you can't delete user files from within the app and have to trawl through the website to delete them. It's just little things that if fixed would make it a killer app like you say but as it stands they're a bit of an annoyance that are making us look elsewhere.

[Son of a Beech]

I've given ARINC a number of feature requests and they do say they'll implement them but can never give a timeframe and can never confirm they even get added to their roadmap.

We don't like the way ARINC handles multiple sector days and multiple flight plans of the same destination. It's leading to a bit of confusion at times for some of the flight deck. Also the fact you can't delete user files from within the app and have to trawl through the website to delete them. It's just little things that if fixed would make it a killer app like you say but as it stands they're a bit of an annoyance that are making us look elsewhere.

The multiple sectors I totally agree on. If you use flight ID's this is resolved.

With regards to the not being able to delete from within the app. This was possible before and removed by special request from an EASA operator, the reason being that if you want to officially use the app for document storage the documents should be protected from deleting by the end users and only be able to be replaced or modified by the EFB administrator.

The main reason for the structure was as follows, and meant for permanent storage
Leg - All handling request, catering orders, overfly permits, hotel confirmations etc.
Company - approvals and operating manuals
Aircraft - AFM, SOP, ETC
User - copy of license, MED and all training records incl special airport appovals.

It was never intended when the doc center was added to store files locally, but more of a management distribution tool. The option of saving things locally on the iPad was made available long after the doc center was introduced. I can see from your pov that deleting local files should be made available. Maybe suggest a special map for local storage that has a local deletion option, I know that DH is open for all sugestions.

So if they change the app and allow deletion of files again there is probaly a whole bunch of EASA operators that loose their paperless ops approval.

Ironically the fact that you can't delete files like a lot of other apps allow makes it for me a killer app which doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.

Just curios, are you FAA or EASA and commercial or corperate?

[Foniac]

The multiple sectors I totally agree on. If you use flight ID's this is resolved.

With regards to the not being able to delete from within the app. This was possible before and removed by special request from an EASA operator, the reason being that if you want to officially use the app for document storage the documents should be protected from deleting by the end users and only be able to be replaced or modified by the EFB administrator.

The main reason for the structure was as follows, and meant for permanent storage
Leg - All handling request, catering orders, overfly permits, hotel confirmations etc.
Company - approvals and operating manuals
Aircraft - AFM, SOP, ETC
User - copy of license, MED and all training records incl special airport appovals.

It was never intended when the doc center was added to store files locally, but more of a management distribution tool. The option of saving things locally on the iPad was made available long after the doc center was introduced. I can see from your pov that deleting local files should be made available. Maybe suggest a special map for local storage that has a local deletion option, I know that DH is open for all sugestions.

So if they change the app and allow deletion of files again there is probaly a whole bunch of EASA operators that loose their paperless ops approval.

Ironically the fact that you can't delete files like a lot of other apps allow makes it for me a killer app which doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.

Just curios, are you FAA or EASA and commercial or corperate?

Not sure I've seen any option to use a Flight ID instead of Recall numbers?

Just seems a bit odd you aren't allowed to delete the User documents (these are the only documents we want to be able to delete from the app), the other documents we can do from the website no problem. Just a pain when we import receipts etc for a leg in to the user section and then can't delete them after the leg is over without navigating through the website.

And we are EASA Commercial AOC

[pilot dude]

Not sure I've seen any option to use a Flight ID instead of Recall numbers?

Just seems a bit odd you aren't allowed to delete the User documents (these are the only documents we want to be able to delete from the app), the other documents we can do from the website no problem. Just a pain when we import receipts etc for a leg in to the user section and then can't delete them after the leg is over without navigating through the website.

And we are EASA Commercial AOC

The flight ID only works if you use company call sign and unique flight numbers for every flight / trip. You generate them (from memory) in company settings and you select the flight id next to the aircraft registration in the flight page.

[Son of a Beech]

The flight ID only works if you use company call sign and unique flight numbers for every flight / trip. You generate them (from memory) in company settings and you select the flight id next to the aircraft registration in the flight page.

What he said is correct but be aware that this is now the call sign that goes into the ATC flight plan and not your tail number