United is planning on replacing all their flight manuals and charts with iPads. I’m not surprised by this, as there are quite a number of apps for aviation, and the numbers seem to keep growing. Many of the apps are expensive, but it’s a small price to pay for eliminating all that paper.
8 thoughts on “Navigation Aids”
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They are not the only one. Delta has already started. The pilots are “piloting” the use in the cockpit, the training center has all iPad based material and the rest of inflight is next.
Never seen a paper chart lockup or crash before though.
As long as they have backups, then it’s OK.
What happens when the drunk or sleep-deprived pilot drops it on the deck? Is there a spare iPad in a locked case? Does it have a sleep-deprivation APP?
I read an article earlier this week where the FAA was lamenting the fact that pilots now are so used to automation they don’t know how to deal with unusual in-flight emergencies, leading to crashes. Seems like this sort of thing would exacerbate such a problem, for exactly the reason robert pointed out.
This isn’t the kind of automation that would make you not really know how to fly a plane. The solution for the redundancy issue would be for both the pilot and co-pilot to have an iPad with the same data on it. The chances of both failing would be slim, and the odds of a failure causing a crash would be practically non-existent. The flight plan would be programmed into the FMC before takeoff, and the worst that would happen if you lost your charts is you’d be more reliant on air traffic control. It’s a manageable situation.
Yeah, they’ll have lots of fun trying to read/follow a four page fold-out flow chart on a 10″ screen…
But a four page fold-out flow chart won’t also let you play Angry Birds!
Last time I flew they told the passengers to turn off their ipads and other gadgets. Supposedly they interfere with the aircraft electronics.