The Allied Pilots Association (APA), representing 11,000 American Airlines (AA) pilots, announced on Thursday, June 16, 2011 that the airline has begun final testing of Apple iPad tablet computers equipped with electronic navigation charts, following Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to use iPads as an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) for pilots, as reported by Marketwatch, Network World, Apple Insider, Fox News, National Public Radio, and other media sources on Friday, June 17, 2011.
American Airlines began testing the electronic charts for six months on two Trans-Pacific routes from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (SHA) and Tokyo Narita International Airport (NRT) starting on Thursday, June 16.
During the testing period, the FAA is requiring that pilots must still carry paper charts as backup.
Typically, a pilot's flight bag containing paper maps can weigh as much as 40 pounds. American Airlines estimates that it could save $1.2 million a year in fuel costs by replacing the dead weight paper navigational charts with the iPads, which instead weigh about one and a half pounds.
According to Captain Hank Putek of the APA, "By eliminating bulky flight bags filled with paper, EFBs mean less weight for pilots to carry, reducing the possibility of injury on duty. In addition, they enable pilots to immediately download updates, rather than waiting for paper versions of required documents to be printed and distributed."
Alaska Airlines (AS), Delta Air Lines (DL) and some sectors of the U.S. military are also testing iPad based Electronic Flight Bags. The charter company, Executive Jet Management, has been allowed by the FAA to use iPad EFBs without backup paper charts.
In the private sector, applications such as Jeppesen Mobile TC and ForeFlight Mobile were the first software made available to consumers for the iPad. They include everything that would be on the paper charts plus aviation tools including navigation charts, taxi procedures, weather maps, GPS, Minimum Equipment List, Company Policy Manuel, Federal Aviation Regulations and flight controls, as seen in the attached video clip and slide show.
Not all pilots support the change. Some comments by commercial pilots on Apple Insider have been highly critical of the switch to the iPad.
As one critic put it, "It's a big worry. Consumer rubbish has no place in the cockpit. The cockpit is a place where everything is perfectly designed, perfectly reliable and responds immediately to commands, exactly as intended. The iPad is far from this. I can think of nothing worse than battling with a flaky consumer device (freezing, apps quitting) while trying to fly the plane."
The pilot continued his tirade, saying "One little 'flake-out' and the plane (and people/structures on the ground) are at risk. I don't have time to battle with device resets or force-quitting or 'Please verify your iTunes account password' when I'm trying to intercept the glide slope! Is this a joke? I won't take to the air without the paper! Sorry, no way. Thankfully, I don't work for American Airlines. I'm all for electronic maps, but they've got to be on a specialized device that is as reliable as the flight avionics."
In a separate but related report, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported incidents of electronic interference which pilots and crew believed to be caused by portable gadgets carried onboard by passengers, including cel lphones such as iPhones, iPads, and other consumer electronics.
IATA has detailed 75 incidents of "electronic interference" in flight systems which pilots believe were caused by portable electronic devices, based on responses submitted to IATA from 125 airlines between 2003 and 2009.
Of those 75 incidents, 26 centered on interference with flight controls, the autopilot, auto-thrust equipment and landing gear. Seventeen involved flight deck communications equipment, while 13 resulted in false electronic warnings. IATA admitted it hasn't actually verified that any of these were caused by unauthorized electronic devices. However, flight crews believe that consumer electronics played some part in these incidents.
We would especially like to hear from commercial pilots about the changeover to electronic flight bags.
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