Welcome to EuroGA !
All the answers above are very true, I won’t add anything else.
Try to fly regularly, be patient and focused, read EuroGA (look around old threads, there are many things to learn) and you will rejoin a wonderful community !
I am a bit surprised on your emphasis on ipads in initial training. All the FI I know do not want any electronic device until the PPL checkride.
To my knowledge, the GDL39 is compatible with SD.
Stratux looks a good solution too.
I have a kneeboard that carries the iPad mini inside and has a cover that holds A5-sized paper sheets (or maybe a thin notebook as well). I usually pin a few A5 sheets on the outside of the cover and a pen (it has a spring-loaded holder for those) and I switch back and forth. In fact, nowadays I mostly keep the cover closed so I can write down clearances etc. quickly. I only open the cover occassionally to check SkyDemon running on the iPad. This way, I’m also saving a lot of battery life because the iPad mini dies fast with the display on at all times but has an impressive battery lifetime if SkyDemon just runs in the background.
I’m very happy with it.
I don’t know which product exactly I bought, but here’s two quick photos:
It would be a modern school to incorporate moving map GPS into PPL training.
If you have the GPS on the kneeboard, how do you prevent accidental touches screwing it up? Also having the back of the tablet against a plastic/leather surface prevents heat dissipation and makes it much more likely to shut down, in a warm cockpit.
Peter wrote:
It would be a modern school to incorporate moving map GPS into PPL training.
So mine was ahead of its time in 2009 with GPS from the beginning and emphasis on being able to handle the functionality of the device. In 2011 all with GNS430 including a demonstration of the OBS feature in the practical exam?
achimha wrote:
So mine was ahead of its time in 2009 with GPS from the beginning and emphasis on being able to handle the functionality of the device. In 2011 all with GNS430 including a demonstration of the OBS feature in the practical exam?
Yes, it was.
We never touched the GPS during my course in 2013 in the US.
I prefer Bose, wish I had gone over to them sooner.
I agree it’s strange to hear about portables at this stage. Lack of “situational awareness” may have contributed toward the two 7th Fleet destroyer accidents. Ships and planes—in both cases you need to be looking where you’re going…
StumblingTrout wrote:
My iPad doesn’t have GPS as it’s not the cellular version. Recommendations for an external GPS – or is it worth upgrading to the LTE iPad that has GPS built in. Articles online suggest that the internal GPS can drop in and out when flying.
I have never had a GPS dropping out, but then I have never had anything with an Apple on it (and never will) 
I fly with iPads for 7 years now, and i never had a GPS outage. The GPS of my iPad mini 4 is just as precise as my 430Ws.
Alexis wrote:
I fly with iPads for 7 years now, and i never had a GPS outage. The GPS of my iPad mini 4 is just as precise as my 430Ws.
If you add my four years with iPad mini, that makes 11 years…
(The SkyDemon Tracklog of a typical, flight of, say, 2-3 hours usually contains “gaps” (assuming these are caused my short losses of GPS signal) of a few seconds, maybe totalling half a minute or a minute.)
All – thank-you enormously for the responses. This is clearly a well attended forum home to many passionate and experienced aviators and I am grateful for the answers to my questions!
So my thoughts on what people have mentioned here…
1 – Bose A20 seems to be the way to go. No-one has mentioned any firsthand experience with the Lightspeed sets here, but again lots of mention of the Bose and not a bad word really to say about them.
2 – Sweaty palms – I’ll make a conscious effort to look at how I hold the yoke, only 2 lessons in I’m sure its not perfect but the issue I mentioned is likely down to me being anxious more than anything else and not down to a particular grip. Same thing happens when public speaking etc. No issues with trimming.
3 – iPad – Thanks for the feedback on this. Reassuring to know that the inbuilt GPS in the cellular is actually very reliable. Seems like some of the external GPS manufacturers are looking for a problem with their solution! Actually there is no emphasis from my flight school on use of GPS/iPads but one of my instructors uses it on his knee and raved about it. One of the aircraft at my school has the G1000 (the one that I aim to fly the most as I prefer it) and I want to learn throughout the course of my training to become proficient in the use of the both the portable nav aids, and the built in ones. I absolutely appreciate the need to be proficient in looking out the window navigation. I’ll chat to my flight school about this – it may be that they don’t allow iPads during training, so a point well raised. I’m the GPS generation though, so my instinct is to feel lost without it – and I know that navigation is (for me) going to be one of the hardest things to master during the course.
Thanks again everyone for all of the responses and the welcome! I hope to stick around.
