IPad gets approval from FAA to replace paper flight charts and maps | Hacker News Reader

IPad gets approval from FAA to replace paper flight charts and maps

engadget.com

46 pointsstatictype31 comments

This wasn't a blanket approval for pilots to throw out all dead trees.

The FAA actually only gave approval to one charter company (Executive Jet Management) to use the iPad in conjunction with their extensive operations manual. Right now all authorizations are being done on a case-by-case basis.

I concur and approve this post for Internet Accuracy*.

They were the only ones that applied - it's hard to see the FAA now saying it's unsafe for Middle-manager Jet Management next door

Don't worry, they'll still make you turn yours off until 10,000 feet.

There probably are some good reasons for doing this (or at least in addition to the paper versions). That is, until a pilot gets caught playing Angry Birds instead of doing their job.

What about Flight Control HD?

It will definitely be concerning to see planes crashing into helicopters and landing after 180-degree turns at 500 feet.

Heh, I got an amusing safety video from AOPA that parodies the iPad.

http://www.aopa.org/aopalive/?watch=dpczgxMjqhzgA49OfCP6osVD...

I wonder how this is going to pan out with the FlightPrep/RunwayFinder patent drama?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2007899

(this might be a very smart move on FlightPreps part - wait until some well funded company gets far enough down the rabbithole to get FAA approval, then hit them up for license fees. _Way_ more likely to get money out of _that_ than from RunwayFinder)

What happens when you run out of batteries mid flight? Paper doesn't have that problem.

They intend to have two of them, one per pilot.

You plug it in and charge it. At least that's what I did on my last vacation when I was in the air for 15 hours.

> What happens when you run out of batteries mid flight?

The same thing that happens to all the other electronics?

You would be punished, or demerited, I assume.

Most of the pilots I know who use an iPad as an EFB also carry paper charts as a backup. The real issue with the iPad in-flight, at least in a small airplane without A/C, is overheating and shutting down. I've seen this happen before and a backup iPad isn't much good in that situation. The fix is usually to remove any insulating case and direct a fresh-air vent at the device until it cools back down a bit.

Where the iOS devices shine is in the pre-flight weather briefing. Foreflight specifically is just an amazing tool for pre-flight planning. http://www.foreflight.com/mobile

I know folks who have used e-readers for this purpose too. Charts are a really natural fit since they are updated regularly and they are bulky. Next up check lists.

Paper flight charts are there for a reason - they're made of paper!

Indeed. They burn far better if you're stranded on an island.

apparently they're ahead of their seafaring counterparts. Commercial ships are still required to carry paper charts.

Three reasons:

1. Electronics are vulnerable to salt water.

2. Ships are at sea for longer than planes are in the air, so their power supplies are less reliable, and they are generally dirtier and more chaotic.

2. Ships tend to have proportionally smaller budgets for fancy electronics. More of them are run by random people from poor countries.

None of these is a fundamental limit. There are tens of thousands of ships designed and run such that none of these points matters. But I think that, generally, they tend to damp down enthusiasm about relying on electronics at sea.

If you believe what you see in those "reality" fishing shows on the Discovery Channel, they are using computerized charts and setting crab pots using GPS so the know exactly where they are. Not to say they don't also carry paper charts, and maybe even a sextant so they can navigate if the GPS goes down, but I am guessing they are not used in practice very often.

Yes, offshore fishing boats in the developed world almost universally use GPS, as do most ships of any size. But there’s still a lot of conservatism in the regulation of what you have to have aboard and know how to use.

Reading nautical charts is nontrivial. They tend to be extremely dense (in areas where you need to use one at all); you have to know a bunch of buoy symbols, implicit rules, and so forth. Switching entirely to an electronic system where you could choose optional display layers and tap unrecognized symbols for help could make navigators’ licensing considerably easier.

Edit: A chart I happen to know a little: http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/18432.shtml . Notice the cable zones (where you can’t anchor), the international boundary, the shipping lanes (where you’re liable to be run over if you’re not a 1000-ton vessel), the magnetic declination rosettes, the angles showing lighthouse visibility, the warning of local magnetic disturbance, the nature preserves … and not far off this particular chart, there are even markings for unexploded ordnance, left over from exercises in the Cold War. And this is a simpler chart than one you would theoretically use to move an oil tanker through the shipping lane, if you did it on paper. So you can imagine how much a good electronic system could clear things up.

Ships also have much more space to store and use charts - it's difficult to unfold a full chart in a small aircraft

Ironically there was a US submarine that hit a reef recently - which was NOT marked on the paper charts it carried. It was on the electronic charts which are updated much more often

Does anyone know how the military went with their paperless navigation systems?

Maybe under some jurisdictions, but the SOLAS international regulations (relevant para 19.2.1.5) only require a backup to your electronic navigation system - this can be another electronic navigation system, although it needs to be fully independent. It happens that paper charts are a durable and trusted backup that meet the regulatory requirements, but most large ships have such sophisticated electronic charting systems that meeting the regulatory requirements is incidental to their design. Laptops have become standard equipment for maritime chart plotting, especially amongst pilots. Harbours and channels have become so busy and congested that plotting on paper is often downright dangerous. The SOLAS regulations recognise that electronic systems are easier to navigate from, will provide checks and alarms to prevent dangerous navigational errors and are more likely to be kept up to date.

they should require papers maps on the plane at least, what happens if you drop the ipad and it breaks ?

And what happens when you spill your coffee on paper maps? No system is perfect.

(not that an iPad is immune to the cup of joe either)

It's harder to make a paper map useless than to make an iPad useless.

Of course a protective case and a spare would solve that problem since I assume flight crews are used to operating in an environment where they are surrounded by sensitive electronics that they really don't want to break.

never mind that, what happens when you're cruising along at 30000 feet and apple decides your app is no longer approved?

  This is the captain speaking. Does anyone onboard have an iPad we can borrow?

/humour (just in case someone feels the need to explain the problems with that idea.)

Sounds great, but I bet a few months after they finally purchase them everyone will wonder what pilots are doing with outdated iPads.

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