StumblingTrout wrote:
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.
Lightspeeds have larger ear cups and having tried both, I find them more comfortable.
StumblingTrout wrote:
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!
I doubt you’ll have any problem with iPhone or iPad GPS reception. iPads can and do overheat when running GPS continuously, unless you pay attention to preventing it. My solution is to keep them in the shade and/or blow an air vent on the iPad. When I do that, I have no overheating problems.
I have a Lightspeed Sierra singe 2 years ago and it is very confortable. I never tried the A20 so I can’t compare. My dad tried it and he like some other pilots, don’t like it.
I was seperately offered an iPad mini wifi-only and an external GPS. I would have bought a GPS/LTE iPad for 2 reasons :
1) the external GPS is another battery to manage and in my case, another cable to charge it.
2) being connected via LTE until take off and at low altitudes is much more handy than only in the club house/terminal (for weather and managing FPLs especially). On flying trips, I feel like I ask for wifi passwords 10 times a day 
One day we were scud running among showers in SW France and I gave the controls to my dad to be able to download radar images and metars on my phone along the way. Not a good experience.
My first ANR set was a Lightspeed. The ANR cuts out every 5 mins by itself and I never got around to returning it for repair. Even without that factor, I prefer the fit and sound of Bose.
Ipads will overheat in direct sunlight, but in general they are quite reliable.
I have found any modern fast tablet will overheat in direct sunlight, and most will overheat just sitting in shade in a +30C cockpit if lying on a non heat conducting surface. I reckon that if you have a running tablet and you close it up between the two halves of a folding kneeboard, it will overheat within minutes.
What helps a lot is not charging them in these conditions. I also find placing them under or near one of the air vents helps greatly. Modern tablets have powerful processors and graphics chips and generate a lot of heat…
The only tablet I can’t get to shut down is my Samsung T705, but the power consumption of that device is a fraction of a typical high-end modern tablet. Accordingly, while it is plenty fast enough for most things normal people do with tablets, it is some 10x slower in e.g. opening a PDF than a fast tablet. If I didn’t need my Thuraya satphone capability and if I could find a way to disable the touch screen against accidental touches, this android tablet would be my tablet of choice.
I also suspect that the loss of GPS issue correlates with how much metal there is around. So I would expect “plastic planes” to work better, even though the certified ones have a metal mesh embedded in the composite.
Another thing with iPhones, not sure about iPads but I think it’s the same problem, is they shut down at +3-4 degrees C. Probably not that big of a problem in a plane, but has caused lots of grief for skiers. Something to be aware of though in certain circumstances.
Apple has officially defined sub zero temperatures (C) as “too cold” for their devices, and above 35 as “too hot”.
I asked my school about students & portable devices:
“Does the school have a view on students bring portable devices with them? Two people I have flown with now have had an iPad mini on their lap using SkyDemon. Looks like a brilliant bit of kit, and really keen to learn how to use this throughout my course, if this is something that instructors support? Reading the experiences of others online, some schools fully support this from the beginning, but others forbid it. I thought it best to seek advice before splashing out on the software licence!”
The response was:
“We do indeed support the use of such technology and SkyDemon is a fantastic platform that the guys all use daily to support their flying. We even run a short ½ day course in the intricacies of the system from time to time. We have the desktop version on the flight planning PC, and you can have a look at that before purchasing the app if you wish.”
So I’ll probably go ahead and get this set up so I can learn how it all works, and take up the 1/2 day training course when they next run one.
StumblingTrout wrote:
So I’ll probably go ahead and get this set up so I can learn how it all works, and take up the 1/2 day training course when they next run one.
On the other hand, as much as I appreciate the open-minded attitude of your school. If you have to pay for that half day of “training” for an introduction to SkyDemon.. Better invest that portion of your money elsewhere. That is not an item – in my view – that needs to be trained with an instructor. There’s more important things to train for during your very, very limited time training. SkyDemon can be tested for 30 days, can be used in an offline simulation mode and is very well documented and in many aspects self explanatory once you’re on top of your flying.
Patrick wrote:
On the other hand, as much as I appreciate the open-minded attitude of your school. If you have to pay for that half day of “training” for an introduction to SkyDemon.. Better invest that portion of your money elsewhere. That is not an item – in my view – that needs to be trained with an instructor. There’s more important things to train for during your very, very limited time training. SkyDemon can be tested for 30 days, can be used in an offline simulation mode and is very well documented and in many aspects self explanatory once you’re on top of your flying.
Good point, and if I start using the app early on I would probably pick most things up throughout the course of my training. It’s nice to know the option is there though if I feel like I need it. They didn’t say what the cost of the session would be.
Having flown with a number of pilots who use Skydemon, I would say the app’s config is nontrivial and there are a number of key concepts which need to be absorbed otherwise one will get into a real mess with it.
We have many examples on this forum of SD issues, including one very recent one where a long-time SD user was using a misconfigured SD to look at some airspace. To understand these apps in detail it helps to have an IT background, especially a “computer user interface” and “database” background. EuroGA has a strong contingent of IT professionals so they don’t have an issue with it, but the PPL population at large is more varied. I have been in electronics since the 1970s and don’t find the operation of these programs fully obvious. SD especially is highly feature-packed; a legacy of its development process which involved a near-fanatical following on one UK site and the resultant packing-in of most feature suggestions.
Of course it is very possible that the instructor charging for this ground school doesn’t understand it either and is just presenting the top level functionality… I went on such a course on the then new Honeywell GPS units many years ago and it was a waste of money.
But if the instructor understands it in depth, including the specific issues which confuse people (especially people used to nice clear printed charts), it’s worth doing.
Peter wrote:
To understand these apps in detail it helps to have an IT background, especially a “computer user interface”
I’m a software test & release analyst so with a bit of luck I’ll have half a chance then!
