Greetings All,
I've already posted several months back on my findings, using the
iPad in a Europa. I carry it with me on every non-local flight.
On bright sunny days it is nearly impossible to read in the cockpit.
It's too big to fit my thigh because it blocks lateral stick movement.
I have no open space on my panel for it either. I was thinking about
a stalk mount on the left side of the fuse. Has anyone found a better
solution? My current mode it to leave it in the pax seat and pick it
up to read the screen. I use it as a backup to my BlueMountain and for
weather overlays.
The same view problems for my iPhone 3gs.
No cell phone will be different because they all use a very similar
display technology and they must balance battery life against
backlight brightness.
The iOS devices clearly have the best and the largest selection of
relevent, useful, easy to use in the cockpit software.
If you buy a different smartphone platform, you will be gambling that
the aviation software will arrive before the device goes obsolete.
I have used almost all of the available in-flight apps for the phone/pad.
Now that Apple officially allows 3rd party multitasking, I run both
Foreflight and AirNavPro and flip between them. AirNav has global map/navaid
coverage,
btw.
I no longer use Skycharts because it is far more cumbersome and slow.
I reject WingX because its user interface is a dog and it is far more
expensive.
I reject Jepp and AirGuide for the same reasons
What I have seen in Flying, P&P, Kitplanes, IFR etc about these apps is
unreliable. No real reviews have appeared, what has been
been printed have been re-written press releases from advertisers.
The GPS chipset in the iPad is more sensitive than that in the iPhone 3gs,
but not as sensitive as a Garmin dash-mount automotive like my Nuvi
255w.
Here's a simple test, fly commercial transport a/c somewhere in a window
seat. Fire up iPhone, iPad, and Nuvi next to window. iPhone will rarely
lock in flight, iPad will usually lock on (say 70-80% of time from cold start),
and Nuvi will always lock (at least I have not yet seen it fail). There are
some
iOS
GPS oddities in the phone where a good lock prevails during
taxi, takeoff and climb, then fails as if some groundspeed / altitude
limit is in the software ( well above Europa performance profile!!).
It was fun and gratifying however to track my progress over the mid
atlantic at 520 kts gs and FL390 enroute to/from Rio last month on my
iPad with AirNavPro. Nine hour flight and the battery lasted the whole trip
with perhaps 75% duty cycle and dimmed screen.
The next big thing ought to be georeferenced approach plates if the
vendors decide that the outboard GPS modules are that much better than
the iPad internal system. I'd spring for an external gps in exchange
for the live plates :)
Best Wishes for the New Year!
--------
Ira N224XS
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=324794#324794
|