Airlines copy bimblers 4 efficiency
 

Was flying with an airline captain friend from one of the majors in his tail dragger this week and he was showing me his new company issued IPAD (with cables and attachments) all loaded up with Jepp charts and other nav features, the set up was kind of like SD on steroids.

Apparently we VFR bimblers won't be the only folks in the skies with suction cups plastered on the windshield and power cables draped across the yoke around the throttle control then into a USB port.
He says it's all he ever looks at on long haul flights.

We're trendsetters! Who'd have thunk it?

Visions of 300 SLF making their own coffee at Kingsmuir, we don't have enough cups for Crissake.

He's not the only one. But the reality is it's just electronic paper. It's poorly designed and a real pain to use (compared with what is possible). The navvy bit is done by the aircraft, fortunately. So PPL's are apparently ahead of us. It's just a shame that Plan B is not often up and running when it needs to be.

PM

Wot, like remembering that "power + attitude = performance" and refraining from stalling into the sea when the AP cuts out?

In my opinion, my ipad, especially with the new Jepp charts, is light-years better than the paper stuff we used to use. And, it's saving thousands of kilos of fuel per year, at my airline.

Thousands of kilos.... Wow, that's Tonnes..!
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Interesting comment in a recent CHIRP from an engineer about non-approved installations in flight decks.
A while ago whilst disembarking from a Q400 I glanced up in the off-chance it might be someone I knew driving. There was an iPad affixed to the side screen with a sucker and the usual trailing power lead, almost completely obscuring the view out. Now, in my ignorance, I'd have thought a part of the certification for the aircraft would have been that the transparencies are all there for a reason, otherwise, why not just have fuselage structure there? If you look at the A380, the cockpit was designed from the start for an EFB in the shape of a laptop each side. These non-approved installations need looking at by a competent authority, I guess we don't have enough inspectors.
When I'm doing a reval or renewal in someone's own aircraft and I see tablets and other paraphernalia all strung about I ask if they can see the instruments properly and what are their plans to avoid getting tangled up in the leads if they need to get out in a hurry? There was someone who tragically died following a successful ditching who apparently was last seen tangled in leads. Headset leads are bad enough, I'm seriously looking at wireless for my next headset.

TOO

GTW - I'm afraid your comment contains a modicum of truth. When the automatics pack up far too many commercial pilots have found their flying skills lacking. But there is a big difference between airline and private pilots in their use of tablets (or EFBs). We used to fly with large heavy "libraries" that needed constant manual updates. These libraries are now a thing of the past. But given the flexibility of tablets they are now used for other tasks. But they have never been used for navigation. The PPLs usage however is the complete opposite. They are used for primary navigation and they are reliable most of time. But far too often I have had to avoid people who were in the wrong place because of their absolute reliance on an iPad. Before tablets too many PPLs were totally reliant on their GPS units and "zone burgling" was a fact of life..

TOO - Our IPads took an age to install. The power was easy. Both sides have a multi-plug (UK/Euro/US) sockets installed during manufacture. The mounts however took an age to be approved. Our biggest hurdle was to install them in a position where they didn't interfere with an escape through the sliding window. Another part of the approval was a sticker announcing that the inbuilt GPS function of the EFB may not be used for primary navigation.

PM