Avionics News July 2014 - 34

iPAD LIMITATIONS

Continued from page 32

Most of his Michigan applicants
fly with an iPad, according to Jason
Blair, a noted aviation educator and
designated pilot examiner. During
the flight portion of their checkrides,
he asks them to explain their plan
for technology's failure. "There is
not one right answer," he said, "but
they have to have an answer" for the
different types of potential failures. If
the battery dies, plug in the charger.
If the iPad reboots, grab the backup
charts that are within easy reach. Or
report the iPad death to air traffic
control and request vectors to an
alternate airport that can provide an
approach surveillance radar arrival.

One applicant answered the
question with a second iPad. "His
new iPad 4 was his primary, and his
old iPad 1 was the backup," Blair
said. The key is to have a plan, and
to expect the iPad to fail on final
approach to minimums. Applicants
using an iPad on their instrument
rating checkride who don't have
a plan for EFB failure often bring
their examinations to an unhappy
conclusion.
Blair's backup is a combination
of a second device and/or paper,
depending on the flight. Regardless
of the primary and backup, the data
has to be current. And this is one
aspect of the different EFB apps
he appreciates as a pilot and an
examiner. "A big red tag tells you

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when you display an expired chart,"
he said.
An informal survey of iPad pilots
revealed few who had suffered
failures. Most of them were onetime learning experiences that
taught them to not set their iPad
on the glareshield, or to leave it in
the cockpit on warm or sunny days
because the units shut down when
they get too warm.
Plugging "iPad" into the FAA's
Aviation Safety Reporting System
database retrieved 151 reports, 149
of them involving aircraft. Part 91
operators led the way with 90 reports,
followed by 56 pilots flying under
Part 121 and three under Part 135.
Among the general aviators, the
operator was the primary source of
the iPad problems because they'd not
taken the time to learn how to use the
EFB app before flying. On one pilot's
first flight with his iPad, he took off,
activated the autopilot, and got so
engrossed that he busted the Class
D airspace around a military base.
Another busted a TFR.
For all the benefits of an iPad
EFB and similar technology, pilot
distraction is their greatest limitation.
Last year the National Transportation
Safety Board, for the first time, listed
texting as a contributing factor to the
crash of a medevac helicopter that
ran out of fuel short of its destination.
During his shift - and against
company rules - the pilot sent and
received 240 texts, 20 of them before
and during the flight that claimed
the lives of the pilot, flight nurse,
paramedic and the patient they were
transferring to another hospital.
There is no app that overcomes
this problem. All of the federal and
operator regulations that prohibit it can
only be enforced after the fact. As has
been the case in all facets of aviation,
proactive personal responsibility is the
foundation of safety. q
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Avionics News July 2014

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