My experience has been that thought lighter socket things never produce enough power and often cause interference.
At best they can keep an ipad from discharging, but not really charge it.
In the end, I settled with on a really good (Anker) charger with loads of power. It has the advantage of also being able to charge while on the ground between stops.
But really you want to be starting with a fully charged device which will probably then not need to be recharged inflight. If you are recharging in flight, temperatures rise significantly and you’re more likely to get thermal shutdown. This is where the battery pack comes in great. You can use your tablet inflight without charging and charge from the battery pack when you get to your destination and your tablet is turned off, and start the return flight with a fully recharged tablet.
Aveling wrote:
The Cessna SP doesn’t have a cigar lighter or other outlet that I know about,
Unless there are variants of the Cessna 172 SP, or it is an option, they do. It is located at the middle of the centre console and has its own switch. According to the POH it must be off for start and landing.
dublinpilot wrote:
My experience has been that (…) lighter socket things never produce enough power (…).
At best they can keep an ipad from discharging, but not really charge it.
My experience back in 2015-2019 is that by choosing the cigar lighter – USB charger and the cable well (absolute rock-bottom minimum able 2.4A at 5V and implementing Apple’s proprietary coding for that), they will charge the iPad. With a recent iPad (able USB PD), I expect no need for the Apple proprietary coding any more, as long as the charger (and cable) support USB PD.
(After 2019 I rarely fly with the iPad in an USB charger in the cigar lighter socket, I had USB C PD 60W sockets installed on the panel.)
Well it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve found out something new about a plane I’ve been flying for 20 yrs, but in this case not obviously.
Correct. Not all restart 172s have a power outlet.
