Where’s My iPad? Probably In The Back Seat

Somewhere around 2010, tablet computers serving as electronic charts began to change the way we pack for a flight and most of us haven’t looked back. No more packing binders of Jeppesen paper charts, stacks of VFR and en route charts, the Airport/Facility Directory and the other stuff that was printed. Now it’s as simple as grabbing an iPad or even an iPhone, plus the required documents, and heading to the airport.

That does not mean the preflight work went away. NOTAMs, weather, TFRs and everything else 91.103 requires still get checked before blasting off; the EFB (electronic flight bag as they’re still called) just changed how that work happens.

After a year evaluating EFB platforms for the Smart Aviator feature, I’ve found myself asking a different question: In an aircraft with advanced avionics, how much does an EFB actually add, and when does it become redundant?

I still see a place for the EFB in the cockpit. But as the capabilities of my panel have grown, the way I use it has changed. Let’s break it down.

Planning Stage

Most of the flying my family does is what I call serious cross-country trips. Leaving our home in Denver, we typically travel to Louisiana, Florida and Michigan, plus the annual pilgrimage to Wisconsin. Like everyone, we have a preferred day and time to travel but have to stay flexible for weather and favorable winds.

Over the course of evaluating EFBs, I found the web-based versions of many platforms surprisingly capable. When planning flights, I often realized I was doing so on my MacBook rather than my iPad. This is likely due to the MacBook normally being accessible; it always travels with me, whereas my iPad does not live the same life.

More importantly, I realized I was very comfortable with, and actually preferred, flight planning at home on my computer. The user interface often seems better to me than the iPad’s. I am able to do everything on the computer, from planning my route, fuel stops, altitudes and best day to fly to weight and balance, NOTAMs, briefings and filing. All of the work is done before arriving at the airport, and all that is left is to sync the iPad EFB to capture the flight plan.

I rarely find myself driving to the airport to go fly without a plan behind the thought. Just the other day, I decided to go see the leaves changing in the mountains. I opened my MacBook, planned my route and saved it, then took my documents and iPad and headed to the airport.

Working this way feels a bit like an airline or charter operation with a dispatcher. The flight is researched, built and filed on the web, and the mobile version is what rides along to operate it. In the Cessna 310, I am the dispatcher, and the MacBook is my dispatch office.

Pre-Departure Stage

When I learned to fly, I was taught to do everything the same way every time. With a pattern of good-habits, the repetition makes it very hard to make stupid mistakes. I taught the same principles to my students and still follow them today.

Arriving at my airplane, I organize the aircraft in a meticulous fashion: a headset at every seat, plugged in and hung over the headrest, iPad on the left seat and so forth. Once the preflight is complete and the family is ready, I start the engines.

The avionics master switches go on, I grab my iPad, listen to the local weather, and manually enter the flight plan from Garmin Pilot into the Garmin GTN 750. Even if my avionics were connected to the iPad through a Flight Stream, I would still check the GTN against the flight plan to ensure there are no discrepancies.

Next, I call clearance delivery, amend my flight plan in the avionics as necessary and set up the altitude and heading bugs as needed. Then I arm the appropriate modes on the autopilot so the flight director is showing the proper data for takeoff. I set up my frequencies: Comm 1 with ground control on the active side and tower on standby, Comm 2 with 121.5 active and departure on standby as a placeholder.

After that, I hand the iPad to my wife seated in the back cabin.

Why? Everything I need to depart is right in front of me on the panel. Garmin’s SafeTaxi works as the taxi chart, the initial heading and altitude are bugged, the transponder code is set, and the ground, tower and departure frequencies are loaded.

The iPad becomes a paperweight at this point, or at least duplicated information.

Why Not Keep the iPad Out?

It is time to go back to the question I asked at the beginning of the article. In a technologically advanced aircraft, what is the practical usefulness of the EFB, and more so, how much is too much?

Inflight tactical weather avoidance on an iPad running Garmin’s Pilot app.

For context, my aircraft is equipped with a Garmin G500 PFD/MFD with a flight director, synthetic vision and a flight path marker, first-gen GTN 750 and GTN 650 navigators, a JPI EDM 960 engine monitor and engine instruments, a SkyWatch active traffic system, SafeTaxi, a Garmin GWX 68 ship’s weather radar, and an S-TEC 55X autopilot. It is not the fanciest setup out there, but it offers plenty of information

What it lacks is a link between the EFB and the panel. The only weather on my displays comes from the weather radar in the nose. Everything else, from ADS-B weather through a portable GDL 52 to SiriusXM and Starlink, shows up only on the iPad.

With all of that information packed into the screens directly in front of me, the need for the iPad dwindles. Worse, to use an iPad I have to take a hand off of something, whether it be the yoke or the throttles, and move my eyes from the panel and outside down to my lap. Any handheld device I add is one more place for my eyes to go, and in a panel this full, information overload is easy to create.

All of this is not to say the iPad is never useful.

When I Still Need the iPad

From departure until about 30 minutes from arrival, I see limited use for an EFB. The glass panel provides almost all of the information I need to fly.

What my iPad does help me with is finding a better tailwind or lesser headwind, a smoother cruise altitude or a way around en route weather. In the winter, monitoring icing PIREPs and avoiding areas of known icing are tools whose value cannot be overstated.

Because that information isn’t displayed on my panel, the iPad is the only place I can access it. Even so, I usually spend just a couple of minutes reviewing it before putting it away again.

We took a trip from Denver to a small airport in Wisconsin just east of Minneapolis for the July 4th weekend. Summertime weather over the plains is a recipe for some fun. As things would go, a frontal line developed the evening before departure and stalled out in Minnesota, with its northern end just south of MSP. The GWX 68 onboard weather radar displayed the weather ahead, and looking out the window, it was obvious we needed to deviate north.

This was a classic case of needing an EFB. I ended up stealing the iPad back from my wife. The onboard radar told me what was directly ahead of the airplane, but Garmin Pilot, pulling weather over Starlink, gave me the strategic picture on the iPad, showing me where the line ended and how wide it was. Rather than simply working around individual returns on the radar, I identified a couple waypoints that would take us around the northern end of the system altogether. I requested that route from ATC, then did a second check that our new path would keep us clear of any further weather, before handing the iPad back to her.

The other time I need the EFB is when I am getting close to my destination, usually about 30 minutes out. I check the destination airport weather, pick an appropriate approach to load and brief myself. During the briefing, I validate the information in the GTN 750 against the EFB, just like we learned to do in instrument training. Once I validate the information and finish briefing myself, it is once again time to hand the EFB to my wife in the backseat and focus on flying the aircraft.

Some Questions

In a technologically advanced aircraft, there is a lot of information installed in the panel. I believe the EFB still has a practical purpose in the aircraft, but information overload is easy to succumb to.

For me, anytime the iPad is just duplicating what the panel is capable of or acting as a second moving map, it belongs in the backseat.

There is no right answer to this, but at Smart Aviator we are curious about how you use your EFB. What type of avionics do you sit behind? Where does your EFB spend most of its time? Do you use it in specific phases of flight or for the entire flight?

The post Where’s My iPad? Probably In The Back Seat appeared first on AvBrief.com.