Last Saturday I had a last minute to fly to Atlanta. I have made this trip many times before and it’s only an hour flight, so it’s not an insane trip. I had to fly to Falcon Field (KFFC) for a quick stop and then over to Peachtree Dekalb (KPDK), which is on the other side of Atlanta. The weather was scattered clouds, so there was a little IMC, and it was mainly VMC for most of the flight. I filed my IFR flight plan on the iPad and then did my preflight and jumped into the plane. I tuned in the G430s, checked the ATIS, picked up my clearance and departed. As I was climbing out I then realized that I forgot to put the iPad in the plane and had left it in the car! CRAP!!! This was the first time I had done that and at that point felt very lost since I no longer had that quick ability to use my iPad to reference airport diagrams, NOTAMS, or my IFR Low Charts. It was amazing how reliant I had become on that iPad. Luckily for me I had my paper charts in the plane, so I was legal, but it’s just not the same as the iPad. The Cirrus has pretty much all the data a pilot could ever need, so it’s not like I was in any danger, but the point is that I had become so accustomed to having Foreflight at my fingertips, that it really through me for a loop. For trips to Atlanta, it’s pretty much GPS direct and vectors to the ILS. Now if this had been a trip to the north east around New York, Philadelphia or Washington DC area, it would have been a totally different story and I would have turned back! I love my iPad and it really has changed flying, but I guess I need to work on my preflight a bit to ensure I don’t do that again. Maybe the new iPad Mini I purchased will help me to not forget it! ;-)
During our trial period I've had to carry all my paper charts with me in addition to the iPad and its mount, but I've literally not looked at the paper charts now for six months. We'll need to carry the enroute paper charts since our Jepp app does not have this capability (another app does, and there are trials underway with that), but all the J-Aid stuff and all the terminal charts--maybe 3-4000 pages--are much better used on the iPad. I'm now so used to having all that information at my fingertips--not just Jepp stuff, but company stuff too: checklists, AOM, FOM, IOM, systems, bulletins, MEL, FRM--that having to pull out the manuals feels like an act of torture. It's really a brilliant bit of kit.
ReplyDeleteWunelle, you should really look at purchasing the Foreflight App. It will give you so many more capabilities that even as a Commercial guy you will get a lot out of it. The enroute charts are amazing and they do have hi enroutes too. I took a trip up the east coast last month and I got rerouted six times, four of which were total reroutes. All I had to do was type in the new route and it automatically populated and I executed. IT WAS AWESOME! No more fumbling around trying to find some mysterious waypoint, VOR or V-Airway on a two or three different paper charts! It makes IFR flying MUCH safer and easier. Check it it out, Foreflight starts at $74.99 for a years subscription.
ReplyDeleteI actually have the Foreflight app, tho I haven't paid the yearly subscription since I can't legally or practically use it without company and FAA approval, which is a slow-moving process. Still, I think time is on our side. The advantages of having this technology aboard are just too numerous to ignore, and I think we will be all-digital in just a few more years. It just takes time for a big, methodical company--there's a lot of money at stake, so things will move at a measured pace. So far, I'm loving it.
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