Do you use an iPad in the cockpit? Would you?

[pilot_man]

Having tried to use them in theater, it's a hack. A useful hack that fills a niche for a few players but it's not a long-term solution for many reasons.

That said, Foreflight + BadElf dongle is the tits for CONUS flying (for us poor bastards without our own moving map)

Yeah, and JDAM is a used to fill a niche for a few players as well. I don't care if all of NAVAIR uses them, but they are useful in several communities.

 

[jtmedli]

I'm not against using an iPad in flight but I think we have a long way to go before it's actually useful. We had some for "testing" recently and it was just a big waste. If we ever get to the point where we don't have to carry both the iPad and paper pubs I would be more willing to go along with it, but at least for us, we had problems with enroute chart resolution and screen refresh rate. Zoom in far enough to make the charts legible and by the time it was displayed you needed to move again.

I did like having approach plates nice and clear, but finding the right one could be a challenge. Also if they were able to go secret that would really push me to the "For" side. Anybody who's ever lugged an Eboard around would probably agree. To answer the original question, I have used an iPad in the cockpit. Once. For the moment, the advantages don't outweigh the disadvantages. Add to that the fact that we can't connect our iPads to anything. We have to take a standalone computer if we go anywhere with the things, "Just In Case" we need to update something. Maybe in a year or two after more work is done on several different fronts it will be great but for now it's just one more thing (two more things if you count the standalone) to get stuffed somewhere in the backseat.

Could you clarify? I've used the charts on my Ipad (not in the plane, of course) but I've never really found myself zooming in any more than normal chart scale would've been. Thanks

 

[Lawman]

Interesting Article http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123283385

Funny enough there has been a conversation about this on Baseops.net for a couple months now.

Im all for replacing or at least prioritizing electronic pubs in the cockpit. For a good long the 64 has been the only Helicopter in the Army inventory with a moving map. I know the 60 guys still flying A and L models would kill to get something like this. And I think the arguments made from the standpoint of reliability/durability/eggs in one basket/etc are about as bogus as the people 20 years ago that kept fighting glass cockpits on the same basis of if you lose an MPD or electrical you cant function.

Another issue that I get to watch directly since the Battalion pubs officer is in my unit, we dont ever have enough required pubs to go around because the Army will only give us MTOE and nothing else. Nothing sucks like being a new junior pilot showing up to your progression ride and not having pubs because there arent enough to go around and your the lowest man on the totem pole. Or flying with outdated pubs for the same reason. Works as a band-aid, until DES or SSD or any other collection of letter people comes to do an ARMs inspection of your Battalion. Not to mention we could save so much money. You guys talk about not needing your _____ that often, how do you think I feel. Ive got all sorts of shit I literally cant use but am required to have. I can only do ADF and GPS approaches and Im not even rated for instrument flight, so why the hell do I need a Volume __ full of VOR, ILS, Tacan, etc and how much does the Army spend not only printing me that, but printing me the update packet at the end of every 28 days to go with it. Or an IFR supplement thats 2 inches thick for every airport in Europe and Northern Africa, just in case I wanted to start planning an IFR flight plan. Ive only got 3 hours worth of gas and I only can go about 120 knots on it, I dont need to worry about ferrying the bird to Scotland or some shit.

 

[HueyCobra8151]

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bit-map/id337172542?mt=8

 

[draad]

In IJET/AJET, many instructors and some students (depending on the IP you have) use them for xc's. They're great for checking weather (which you can have overlayed on any type of chart), filing flight plans, GPS is great for taxiing at unfamiliar airfields (shows your location on an airport diagram), and if ATC gives you a completely random fix to go to, searching it is a snap. Flightplanning with a JMPS computer and Foreflight is a snap. Finally, now that they're not issuing any sort of pubs in hard copies here (FTI's included) the iPad is money for carrying all your pubs + NATOPS around. Apple is supposedly developing a slightly smaller iPad as well...if they also integrate high quality GPS so you don't have to have the BadElf attachment, I will most definitely be purchasing one.

 

[jtmedli]

I don't know what other people are using for charts but we were using GoodReader, which is pretty much the only thing we were authorized to use on the entire iPad. Beyond that, I don't really know what I can say other than repeating what I said earlier. If we had to zoom in enough to actually read information, say to verify spelling of an intersection, it took a while to get load. If you weren't in the right place you had to move and do it all over again.

Is everybody else using that same reader or something else?

Rog. I've used foreflight and fltplan.com apps and everything shows up pretty well on there. You still have to zoom in places, but IMO it's no harder than squinting and holding a chart real close to your face.

 

[Reconjoe]

iPad 2 (3G model) with Wing X.....perfect package. If you get the 3G model, it has a full GPS chip built in and works at altitude (at least in a bubble canopy aircraft) without using the cellular.

 

[helolumpy]

...JDAM...

So your jet does not have a GPS approach, but your bombs do? I guess that's a good thing....

 

[pilot_man]

I guess you can tell where our money goes. And that is the way I prefer it. Yes, if we had the money, I'd love to be able to shoot some civilian approaches, but let's be honest, how often do I have the operational need for that sort of thing?

 

[Squid]

I think the most recent NSAWC journal has a nice piece on it. If you can get your hands on one... you know why.

 

[Brett327]

To echo what has been said WRT the IFC (having just read it), the iPad is out for pretty much all of the "gucci" ways people in this thread are dreaming up using them inflight. It also reenforces the point that the whole reason for the IFC was to fulfill a specific operational purpose - not to replace FLIP, not to have a moving map and not to navigate with. If you're doing these things with an iPad, you do so at your own peril. I encourage everyone to read the IFC.

 

[707guy]

Instead of an iPad in the cockpit, could I just have a civilian ILS for the Hornet please?

Isn't there an app for that?

 

[squorch2]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...oes-high-tech/2012/04/12/gIQAVaLEDT_blog.html

If its secure enough for the PDB...

 

[highside7r]

I know the 60 guys still flying A and L models would kill to get something like this.

We do have something like this in a very large and sometimes cumbersome system called an EDM. Works for tactical charts and Blue Force tracker, comes with a kneeboard set up that is too bulky, so most just leave it on the lower console. Improvements are supposed to be coming out to allow geo-referenced charts. I also heard Apple bought out the company that made these. As long as the DAFIF is current, our GPS is certified for IFR and WAAS is supposed to be a future addition.

Army jet guys are allowed to start using them in the cockpit as long as they are "Army issued".

 

[mmx1]

We do have something like this in a very large and sometimes cumbersome system called an EDM. Works for tactical charts and Blue Force tracker, comes with a kneeboard set up that is too bulky, so most just leave it on the lower console. Improvements are supposed to be coming out to allow geo-referenced charts. I also heard Apple bought out the company that made these. As long as the DAFIF is current, our GPS is certified for IFR and WAAS is supposed to be a future addition.

Army jet guys are allowed to start using them in the cockpit as long as they are "Army issued".

We use those too; I thought they were owned by Raytheon now. The hardware updates have gone a long way to making it faster and more responsive, but the interface is still from the 1990's (stylus on top of Windows) and needs to be brought up to modern touch interface conventions.