An iPad in Every Student’s Flight Bag?
By Scott Spangler on August 7th, 2012At every turn, it seemed that everyone at EAA AirVenture 2012 had an Apple iPad, except me and one or two others. Aviation apps were hot items this year, and several of them would make effective, essential tools for pilots in training.
First up is Jeppesen’s new e-book versions of its well-respected pilot and maintenance technician manuals. They are starting with the private pilot and mechanic texts, but in due time all will be available at the Apple iBookstore. The library weighs nothing and once downloaded, accessing each volume using the iPad full suite of features doesn’t require an Internet connection. When they begin instrument training, students should consider Jepp’s Mobile FliteDeck new Version 2.0. Among other features it provides a paperless cockpit, and its announcement coincided with new JeppView nav data subscriptions that offer greater flexibility and economy.
More important for students is Lightspeed’s FlightLink app for its new Zulu.2 ANR headset. Connected to the headset battery box by a cable, the free app is a cockpit voice recorder that records the entire flight (or other specified time) and gives instant recall of the last 2 minutes by touching the appropriate point on the narrow graphic audio display on the left side of the screen. The rest of the screen is a digital scratch pad, as Lightspeed’s Teresa De Mers demonstrates here.
Some may consider this app nice to have but not essential. If you’re a student at any level, think again. But back in the microcassette days I learned first hand that recording every flight lesson was an invaluable tool that made every flight more educationally productive. Let’s face it, like all students who are learning to fly a real, live, vibrating, noisy airplane in the air with other airplanes nearby, I was only half listening to the important things my CFI was telling me.
By listening to the tape after each lesson, I didn’t need to repeat the flight—and the mistakes—until I finally heard her. Once was enough. This app is way better than my old microcassette recorder, and the Zulu.2 ANR headset is not only light and effective, it comfortably fit my big ears and fat head. A cable connects the iPad to the Zulu.2’s battery box, and the audio quality is superb, complete with the headset’s ComPriority and Bluetooth connectivity for streaming stereo music or phone connections.
To answer the headline’s question, yes, an iPad should be in every student pilot’s flight bag, and from what I saw at AirVenture, that doesn’t mean students will have to buy one, they just need to bring it along. –Scott
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August 7th, 2012 at 4:21 pm
I do not understand why the industry has such an extraordinary focus on iPad apps while disregarding Android based devices. More than 50% of consumers using Smartphones and tablets choose Android. The aviation focus on Apple is leaving more than 50% of potential users without similar tools.
August 7th, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Android functionality is much better than apples…. an Ipad is 40% made by samsung for example… and that includes the beutiful screen on the ipad.
August 8th, 2012 at 8:16 am
@Tom : here lies your answer :
http://ww1.jeppesen.com/company/newsroom/articles.jsp?newsURL=news/newsroom/2012/Oshkosh_Samsung_Galaxy_MobileTC_NR.jsp
there is so little standardisation amongst Android-using machines that an editor has to specify *two* models for which they developped the application….
It’s just the same with Windows /rest-of-the-world for PCS…
August 8th, 2012 at 10:44 am
Tom, it’s a matter of time before industry players catch on that there’s more than just the iPad fad that’s out there in the playing field. iPad entered the market first, so it made sense that they would be supported first. It’ll happen, no worries. Apple has been losing market share in the mobile devices space as Android is proving to be a more capable, desirable, and affordable platform.
August 8th, 2012 at 10:51 am
Re: “I do not understand why the industry has such an extraordinary focus on iPad apps while disregarding Android based devices. More than 50% of consumers using Smartphones and tablets choose Android. The aviation focus on Apple is leaving more than 50% of potential users without similar tools.”
Many app developers have said that Android fragmentation, operating system versions, multiple screen sizes, etc. are reasons they concentrate on iPad and iPhone apps. Apparently, writing iOS apps is more profitable for developers, as well. I know several Android users who have recently switched to an iPad or iPhone, but I don’t know anyone who has done the opposite.
August 31st, 2012 at 10:19 am
I own a Android phone and an iPad when the question was brought which device to choose for flight operations we chose iPad. It was easy to certify with our authority. It had more literature written on the certification process and more procedures written on how to use the device and the applications. You can check that iPad fits perfectly the legal frame and it is easy to do the paper work for certification.