The rapid uptake of Apple’s iPad into business and even commercial aviation cockpits has been stunning. So, too, has been the deployment of applications that do everything from displaying moving maps with geo-referenced (own-ship) position on airport, en route and approach charts to providing terrain awareness and pre-flight (and soon in-flight) weather.
There is a problem with any handheld device brought into cockpits, however, and that is learning how to use the and incorporate the device into flying processes. If you plan to use an iPad with own-ship position display on an approach plate, for example, when do you begin preparing the iPad and the app for the approach? Do you know exactly how to pull up the correct approach chart when you want it? If you need to have the destination airport in a flight plan, do you know how to do this quickly? (A weak point in most iPad apps that I’ve tried is lack of a simple direct-to function.)
Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.
