You mount the iPad in front of an air vent and all is good, Or you take a clear plastic/rubber tube and lead fresh air from a vent to the ipad. I did that i my Warrior (air cooled iPad, patent pending ;-)
In the Cirrus i have air condition ;-))
I think altitude plays a big role too. Thinner air gives less cooling.
If that was the case, Apple couldn’t sell a single iPad here in SoCal. Apple say something like 35C as max operating temp, but just last week I landed at KVNY with an OAT of 39C and a cockpit temp of prob around 45C. iPad performed flawlessly. What these things DON’T seem to like is direct sunlight, as in my – so far only – shut-down event. YMMV.
Fair point but if you have an OAT of say +35C then in direct sunlight and lying down, any reasonably nonreflective surface will reach about +60C. Too hot to hand-hold. Put an Ipad on top of the dash in a parked car in +35C OAT and sunlight, and see what it does.
Thinner air gives less cooling
Very much so – FL180 is 50% of the density.
In the Cirrus i have air condition ;-))
Not when you are parked 
Re – satellite constellation: the xgps150 app gives you that information. I can’t quite understand what the “absence of a mechanical on/off switch” means but the xgps150 has a auto off feature if it’s not used anyway, and it is turned on by a rather long pressing of a mechanical button…
With regards to “xgps battery being flat when you need it” – much like pre-printed paper charts all it takes is a little planning before going (or a cigarette lighter charging cable).
And another thing that has been done to death – in-flight heating. The iPad back is a heatsink so put it on a kneepad sleeve and it will not cool down as it should. Leave a lot of applications open in the background and it will heat up and drain the battery. Leave the wifi on and it will drain the battery. However – if you remember to double-click the Home button and actively close all the apps save for the nav application and it will work flawlessly.
If the iPad would really shut down all the time like that Foreflight would never have reached their remarkable sales volume….
The XGPS150 app gives you the satellite data but is there an app which does this for the internal GPS?
There are free apps that give you horizontal and vertical position accuracy. If you are a sailor (or want to pay 20ish bucks) Nmea Remote gives you the number of satellites in view and the SNR.
Not when you are parked
No, but I developed (after a lot of research) a method: I take the iPad out of the hot plane :-)
I always try to have the most important charts with me on paper.
But on longer trips this is simply not feasible, especially if the trips goes differently than planned.
When flying to an airport for which I have digital charts only, I simply make screenshots on the iPad and forward it to another device.
I also carry a small laptop running JeppView – just in case.
I always make sure that my iPad is fully charged before departure, and use it only when needed.
I store it on the left side of the seat, in the shadow.
I never had any issues with the iPad shutting down due to overheating.
To get a GPS fix inflight I have to put the iPad on top of the dashboard for a couple of minutes, so it has a clear view of the sky.
I chage my ipad during the flight if needed
flybymike wrote:
Will the GPS on an iPad self locate fairly quickly when travelling at speed?
Doesn’t seem to be a problem. iPad Mini 2 also has GLONASS which probably helps. But in practice if I know I my primary tablet might not survice to the end of the trip (eg. low battery when preparing for the decent), then I will swap them over proactively before it becomes a problem, so this gives plenty of time to get the spare one up and running. And if you have an external bluetooth GPS (Garmin Glo or GDL39 or similar), then you don’t have the issue anyway, assuming both tablets are pre-paired with the bluetooth device. Although I always find the internal GPS to be very reliable and to tally very closely with a GNS/GTN, and I don’t like the clutter of the GDL39 so rarely use it.
I can’t relate at all to these issues of iPads being unreliable in flight. Maybe it is more of a problem with the older models, or maybe people somehow use them in a different way to me. iPads are rated to 35C ambient, very rarely will you have above this in the cockpit, except for a short period on the ground and initial climb out. Lower air density at altitude shouldn’t really be a problem because at FL100 or FL180 or whatever, you can have plenty of cold fresh air coming into the cockpit and presumably most people set their air vents and/or heating to get them somewhere near 20C in the cabin anyway.
I never charge my iPad while in use as this generates more heat (my charging cable is to the right hand yoke and I swap them over if required and only charge the switched-off device on the right side). It is always mounted on the yoke which rarely has direct sunlight, would never place it on the dash. And would never place it in a rubber or plastic or leather protective case which is just a big insulator that will make it even hotter.
Have flown in very hot ground conditions, and long flights at altitude with no cloud cover and never had an overheat warning or shutdown, but maybe it will happen one day.
