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Permalink Reply by Don Morrisey on March 4, 2020 at 9:03pm

I know an iPad is a cheap solution but visibility in a cock pit is not good based on my experience, others may differ.  You need to be able to see the screen in all lighting conditions. The best tablet I have found is a Nexus 7, but that also has limitations .  My $.02

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Permalink Reply by Jim and Amelia Isaacs on March 5, 2020 at 5:38am

EFBs, be they iPads or Android operating system tablets, are good supplements for Situational Awareness and good replacements for paper flight information publications in the cockpit, but they are not good substitutes for a purpose-built aviation GPS device. Although it depends on the aircraft, screen glare, screen washout in direct sun, and shutting down as a result of exposure to direct sun and overheating are common shortcomings for commercial tablets unless you move up to the more expensive ruggedized outdoor tablets, even then, they are not as good in direct sun as an aviation GPS. My iPad comes along with me but mostly it sits in my headset bag while I use my purpose built portable aviation GPS mounted on my panel.

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Permalink Reply by Ralph Powell on March 5, 2020 at 8:12am

Byers,

 I don’t use Open Flight, but if you do I would like to hear how well it works. Their products look real neat. I use an iPad in my cockpit with Seattle Avionics mapping with a Dynon EFIS. The iPad visibility’s has always been fine. If it occasionally catches a little glare, so what? I fly a put put Plane, not a jet. My flight instructor’s hammered into me that I needed to be able to fly the airplane without instruments if needed. I do not fly IFR.

My observation of glass EFIS systems is that they provide way more information than you really need. Do you really need cylinder head temps on all cylinders? I fly behind a fuel injected engine, exhaust temps are just fluff. Fuel rate of use? Fun, but not once you run a few loads of fuel through your plane it is just bragging rights. Oil temp with a decimal readout? Get real, C172 steam gauge are a floppy needle with just yellow, green, and red with no numbers, been working fine for decades. Just keep it all in perspective.

Enjoy,

Ralph

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Permalink Reply by John Austin on March 5, 2020 at 1:59pm

Do you really need cylinder head temps on all cylinders? I fly behind a fuel injected engine, exhaust temps are just fluff.

Au contraire, mon frere!  When you stuff a 6 cylinder, air-cooled engine (Jab 3300) into a slow, high-drag airframe (STOL 750), you definitely need 6-probe CHT/EGT monitoring!  :>)

John

N750A

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Permalink Reply by Byers Coleman on March 5, 2020 at 4:31pm

I plan on a Ul 350is in my 750.  Cost of the additional  probes seems minimal compared to the cost of the engine.

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Permalink Reply by Jim and Amelia Isaacs on March 5, 2020 at 6:39pm

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not against using a commercial tablet as an EFB, just that they are best suited for use by the person not on the controls. You need to be able to keep it powered, move it around sometimes to find a good viewing angle to counter the glare, and keep it out of the direct sunlight. Good tool to keep your passenger engaged in the experience. Buy a tablet you like and load up your app and go try it out. If it doesn’t work out you still have a tablet for use around the house. I’d just stay local until you sort out if it’s right for you and your plane.

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Permalink Reply by John Austin on March 6, 2020 at 7:39am

iPads got off to a great start as EFB's and were quickly adopted by pro pilots since they didn't have to lug around a huge, heavy case of paper plates and charts.  However, the pro's were/are using them in bizjets and other commercial aircraft that tend to have relatively small windows (subdued lighting and not much glare) and air conditioning (no overheating issues).  Also, they were not panel mounted or hard-mounted which allows you to make subtle tilts and vary viewing angles to reduce glare.

In my 750 STOL, I used a Toshiba android tablet for a while (to display GPS moving map), which had an excellent display, but there is simply no comparison to the aviation-quality displays on my MGL XTreme EFIS/EMS and my iFly 740 GPS!

I agree with Jim - tablets are a great supplement but not always the best choice as a primary flight display.  Of course, technology marches on and now I can run iFly GPS on my phone and that means I always have a backup GPS in my pocket!  :>)

John

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