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Comment by V-eHGsd_ | Hacker News Reader

Having ff on an ipad and phone is really not having a “common point of failure”

You do you, but I find relying on a second device (third really, the plane has gps and nav radios) and battery backups much easier than buying a new chart supplement and a bunch of charts every 2 months. Plus I have all the approach plates for every airport …

trying to duplicate the functionality that I get from my setup with paper charts and plates is just practical.

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> Having ff on an ipad and phone is really not having a “common point of failure”

The “common point of failure” is GPS, which does have regular local/regional outages. Your instruments may be able to use VOR/DMEs, and hopefully you're able to use the VOR MON:

* https://www.flyingmag.com/flying-the-mon/

* https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/acf/medi...

But if you're relying on a GPS approach, you may be SOL (many places don't have ILS, and only visual and GPS).

MON just means that there are a certain number of VORs that aren't going to be decommissioned. it's not a different kind of VOR. and they're decommissioning all of these VORs precisely because GPS is so reliable.

Having the same software app running on two devices is still subject to any faults in that software package (or their compilation of their database). I think it’s fair to call that a common point of failure.

You can judge that failure mode to be unlikely, of course, but you’re still making a judgment about an uncertainty.

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