Until the iPad can be certified and safely integrated into a planes avionics and autopilot system, there will remain a market for very expensive hardware certified panel mounted systems. For my VFR / IMC stuff, the GNS430 is my secondary Nav device, and is there to keep the AP on an aligned track, but all planning and situational awareness comes from my iPad. Not discounting looking out the window too of course :-)
Can we consign the NDB/ADF to room 101 with immediate effect please. 
Can we consign the NDB/ADF to room 101 with immediate effect please.
I’d like to see an event, possibly accompanied with that special celebration on November the 5th, where designated airfields have a ‘bring and burn’ ADF ceremony where you rip them out of your plane, fill the space with something more sensible (even a cigarette lighter socket), and toss the devices into a large bright orange glowing thing :-)
Pray tell what is an ADF and why should it be burned? Is it pointing you in the wrong direction?
Just went up for a test flight this afternoon, After a half hour, my iPad said it was too hot and to leave it alone for a while.
After a half hour, my iPad said it was too hot and to leave it alone for a while.
Where was it positioned? With the one exception stated in my previous post, I – so far – never had issue, and that’s flying around SoCal and the adjacent deserts.
(I’ve so far not used it in Europe)
Pray tell what is an ADF and why should it be burned? Is it pointing you in the wrong direction?
ADF = Automatic Direction Finder. I was doing some NDB/ADF work last Wednesday at Shoreham and it was rather interesting comparing actual track to track the said instrument was saying I was flying. Inbound to the beacon on the 02 NDB/DME procedure, at around 3 miles I was completely off track, in spite of the fact the needle was saying I was bang on track. It was at this point the the indicator decided to change its mind and tell me I was off track. I concede the on board equipment was not the best and coastal refraction and the rain clouds were teasing the ADF but still, I think I will only ever fly the procedure in anger with the GPS ticking away to confirm desired flight path is actual flight path. Put it on the bonfire…….
Pray tell what is an ADF and why should it be burned?
The problem here in Europe is that AOC flights need a navaid (GPS is OK but the vast majority of AOC operators are not equipped or not approved for any GPS approach) and the cheapest “navaid” you can stick into a hole in the ground is an NDB. So you get “instrument approaches” like this
And until there is a formal GPS for ADF substitution rule (no sign of that coming, ever) the NDB has to be in the syllabus, whether you like it or not. Yes, it’s crap, and everybody knows that, but…
After a half hour, my iPad said it was too hot and to leave it alone for a while
Exactly my point. It’s a nice toy, but a navigation device which doesn’t like sun shining on it is, ahem, a toy.
But, that doesn’t mean that Ipads etc will decimate the panel mount upgrade business, because keeping sunlight off your Ipad (and putting RNAV1/PRNAV equipment – PBN/B2D2 – on your flight plan 
) is a lot cheaper than spending €20k on avionics
Reportedly, Ipads have already destroyed the aviation GPS sales in pilot shops, and I can partly understand that. The innovation in aviation handhelds has been appalling. But say a Garmin 695 is still vastly more robust.
After having iPads overheat on the seat of my car, I was careful to come up with a way to prevent it in my plane. Mine is on a Ram mount that positions it six inches in front of a windscreen vent that that blows air on it pretty forcefully. I also use a ‘Mini’ which is apparently more resistant to overheating than the full size unit. No overheating problems using it for ‘primary’ navigation… Its not outside the range of human capability to make things work
My in-flight backup is an iPhone in my pocket, also running Foreflight with the same route loaded, and the backup to the backup is paper VFR charts and a 196 in a bag behind the seats. That system works fine for me. Sometimes I have another iPad in the plane too, also running Foreflight with the route automatically loaded – I usually prefer using the full sized unit on the ground. A route is programmed on any of them, and it synchs to the others automatically.
I’ve forgotten whether I posted that about a month ago I rode along as safety pilot with a friend who needed to do six practice IFR approaches in his G1000 equipped plane. After the fifth approach into the third airport he climbed a little too fast and clipped the corner of a block of Class B airspace, minus clearance. We were talking to ATC but were flying the practice approaches VFR, and explicitly not cleared into the Class B. I noticed this first *on my iPhone (!)* because it was running the VFR terminal area chart – the G1000 right in front of me showed the airspace blocks but not the height limits in the mode he was using it. I advised my friend of the situation and he descended about 400 ft before moving along a bit and resuming the climb. Nothing was said by ATC.
My in-flight backup is an iPhone in my pocket, also running Foreflight with the same route loaded, and the backup to the backup is paper VFR
Exactly my setup. Only difference is that my iPhone lives in a holder on the windshield (suction cup on the left side, where the Cessna windshield has a flat area). IOW in full sunlight. Never had a heat issue.
