iPad for Aviation use

...That's right, a great change in the world of aviation has already began. In the life of a pilot there were many documented maps, charts and guidelinebooks that should be kept in every flight deck and be used through every flight. In other words tons of books and maps were used during the flight.

But recently the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) in the US has approved the use of iPad tablet in order to replace all these scripts and maps and make the life of a pilot easier.

From now on US pilots are allowed to use an iPad for flight documentation as well as mapping. To be more specific, the 41 (!) total flight instruction manuals that pilots are obliged to carry in every flight are about to turn into electronic books in the well known .pdf form (Alaska airlines and American airlines have already procceeded to the use of iPad instead of books). With the substitution of books to an iPad not only the information is available to pilots more easily but also the update of these books according to modern standards is going to be a lot easier. In addition there are about 2.4 millions of written pages to be saved, giving an ecology touch to the issue as well.

In addition to the above, not only the flight manuals are about to be turned into electronic but flight maps as well. A special app has been developed under the name of 'Mobile TC' by aviation chartmaker company Jeppesen. After thorought testing of the tablet and the application regarding the stability in extreme conditions (such as even decompression of an aircraft) as well as the interference with other aircraft systems, FAA has approved its use for mapping as well. So, pilots are able to use iPad to replace manual map charting.

Jeff Buhl, jeppesen's product manager for the Mobile TC app said after the testing that the Apple iOS and the application proved extremely stable during the tests.

“The recovery time for an application crashing or the OS crashing is extremely rapid,” Buhl says.

During the evaluation period with the FAA, the production app did not crash. But even if it did, Buhl says it’s ready to go again “in 4-6 seconds from re-launch to previous state.”

Although the permit from the FAA is valid only for one airline company ('Executive Jet Management'), according to Jeppesen's sources, even more and more companies are applying for the use of an iPad for mapping as well as replacing the flight manuals. The fact is that aviation in the U.S. (for a start) is about to change according to the modern breakthroughs of technology. Many airline companies will surely follow the footsteps of the airliners above. So, let us all hope that gaming is not a popular hobby for pilots (if you know what I mean.... well, just jokking.... I guess.... )