I’ve used a iPad mini 4 for several years and never had an overheating issue – not even in the midst of summer. I think it depends on the placement of the tablet and what kind of windows you have. The TB20 seems to have larger windows than most.
My point here is that, unpowered, the internal temp would have been uniform, and around +40C. That’s enough to stop an Ipad powering up.
And probably other tablets too.
derek wrote:
I presume the dimensions/geometry wouldn’t allow the following (where the iPad mini is flush against the door ‘post’, and not impeding the use of the yoke, door handle, fuses or window):
This is my setup using a RAM yoke mount:
I could rig that up but I am sure it would hit my legs. It also obstructs the TKS control panel behind it.
Peter wrote:
I could rig that up but I am sure it would hit my legs.
You would think so, but I don’t actually have that problem. The angle is a bit difficult to see in the photo, but I did quite a bit of trial and error with various mountings and lengths of the RAM components, such that it doesn’t actually extend much lower than the yoke itself. I also like that it sits in the centerline, making emergency use of the synthetic vision feature (which pulls from the FlightStream AHRS source) more reasonable than being off to the side. It does block the fuel tank selector (older TB design), but this is pretty easy to operate by feel.
I’ve never had a problem with an iPad overheating, not even in Texas in a Grumman Tiger. My wife’s never overheated either. We didn’t leave them in the plane though when we got out (except perhaps for a fuel stop, but I would always leave it in the footwell out of the sun).
I typically use a phone on a mount so that it’s at the bottom of the windscreen/top of the instrument panel (above the ASI) so I don’t have to look down and use a phone (either an Android phone or an iPhone) and neither of those have overheated. The only time I’ve overheated the Android phone was when I strapped it to my Dad’s racing sidecar to try and GPS track it.
always leave it in the footwell out of the sun
Same here, keep it outta direct sunlight on the ground. Also leave as much as possible of the rear case open to ambient or cooling air…
And since I use the iPad mini 5 as my main nav for VFR, I bought one those X-Naut cradle, works perfect on one of my USB outlet. Never had any kinda failure airborne.
Is that X-Naut too expensive? Friend of mine bought a couple of PC fans and did his own 
@Peter, I see half or more of the surface of your RH panel half with duplicates, i.e. not used instruments. Tablet in front of those on a RAM mount, swing to side if necessary.
Well, yesterday a second Ipad Mini did exactly the same shutdown. The whole unit was at a uniform temp which I would say was definitely below +40C. I know +40C is a bath as warm as I can get in
So this is a great way to end up with an INOP Ipad, at the start of a flight.
On top of that, an Ipad will always switch itself ON when you plug in a charger and apparently this stupid feature cannot be disabled. That in turn causes it to get a lot warmer still, but you may not notice it turned itself on if it is in a protective case. This has bitten me a few times.
I believe the younger pilots on long distance flights mainly use their iPhones for navigation! They seem to be more robust and reliable in different conditions.
I know a ferry pilot who routinely files IFR using only ForeFlight on an iPhone for navigation. He regularly flies VFR-only airplanes across Europe in IMC, and I know this because he landed behind me once in such conditions flying a 1960s C172 with only basic instrumentation. Other than the obvious consequences if this went wrong, I wonder what kind of legal trouble he’d find himself in if he were caught.
