Aspen Avionics and iPad
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Joined: Jan 2008
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From: London
Aspen Avionics and iPad
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So the evolution is continuing.... something for IO perhaps, but what does it do to make flights safer?
So the evolution is continuing.... something for IO perhaps, but what does it do to make flights safer?
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 13,787
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From: EuroGA.org
something for IO perhaps
I print off all material (enroute charts and plates) for the planned route, destination and alternate(s). I'd never trust an electronic device for that.
And I fly behind a KLN94 and a KMD550, which I am not upgrading until enroute PRNAV becomes mandatory
This is amazing progress though. Not because it's technically difficult. It's totally trivial to do. But because, for so long, IFR avionics have been crippled on their external data entry options. Meggitt have for some years had flash card flight plan entry (from some flight planning software; I don't know details), and the Garmin x30W units now have flash card flight plan entry (using the Jepp flight plan migrator program which basically transfers an ex Flitestar routepack to the flash card). I think the G1000 has a similar facility as the W units. Honeywell never did anything like that (but Honeywell never do anything anyway, for GA).
And now, it looks like we are going to get a direct data transfer from an Ipad - not via a flash card whose writing methods is a lot simpler to certify than a computer. An Ipad is obviously impossible to certify for integrity. So I wonder how they squared off the paperwork with the FAA. That is can be done was never in doubt, but nobody tackled it before.
I wonder what the interface is. Are they selling what is basically a server with a wifi access point into which the Ipad hooks up, and which presents a HTTP (or whatever) interface? Or is it bluetooth? There is no other way to get data out of an Ipad; it is totally crippled on the interface side of things. It cannot write out an SD card for example. It can email, again via wifi, possibly via bluetooth, or via GPRS/3G but I doubt they have implemented that.
Also how do they connect to the avionics? I didn't know there was a back door into say a GNS430W through which one could enter flight plans. Obviously it can be done by reverse engineering the crossfill protocol; that's been possible since day 1 but if anybody did it, they certainly wouldn't publish it. Maybe that's how they do it. They have to fake a 2nd unit with the same database version.
The European functionality will be more limited than is implied, because the only way, currently, of developing an IFR (Eurocontrol) routing on an Ipad is with a Rocketroute subscription.
Anyway, the avionics interface is the most curious thing here.
