Sorry, we can't take off-- my iPad is down

[UncleFire]

oops... Bugs happen I suppose. But an interesting disruption scenario is now apparent-- say somebody corrupts their app/data, does that mean an entire airline is screwed?

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/29/apple-ipad-fail-grounds-few-dozen-american-airline-flights

[Evan]

I hope the QRH is still in printed form. I can just imagine an iPad crashing at the critical moment... Apple products are NOT up to mission-critical standards. Not even close...

[3WE]

I hope the trim control still includes a wheel on the center pedestal. I can just imagine an electronic display or electrical switches crashing at the critical moment... Electronic stuff fails sometimes.

Yeah...taking you out of context, but the compare and contrast seems interesting enough.

Tough deal...the recent history need to carry a piece of paper for every approach, departure and arrival in "the whole world" versus a glorified memory stick and PDF reader in a nice, neat ergo-friendly Star Trek TNG video display thingie...

...and all the itty bitty, never ending updates and managing errors and hacking potential and accuracy-checking and networks and...

Maybe "papers" for each flight should include the necessary charts for the flight (yeah, kill a FEW trees), and then the I-approach-plate app is there just as a safety back up for an unscheduled landing- where even if the I-pad fails, ATC can just as well talk you through everything (like they basically do already).

[Vnav]

For this exact reason, we are only supposed to update our tablets at certain times. There are essentially 3 things that need to be updated 1) the updates for the tablet itself (in our case a Surface, not Ipad) 2) Updates for the Jeppesen charts 3) Updates for the company/cockpit manuals and bulletins

There are blackout periods in the month for any Surface updates to allow the company to test them. For the Jeppesen charts and other manuals, we are required to update them within 24 hours of starting a trip but in general, once on the trip, we aren't required to update.

[3WE]

...in our case a Surface, not Ipad...

I get it...

Men who fly genuine, metallic, non FBW, yoke-equipped aircraft use Microsoft.

Puppy pilots who fly cheap composite cracker boxes with toy joysticks use Apple.

(Sorry ATL )

[TeeVee]

i'll take an ipad vs a surface 10 times per day, 9 ways to sunday.

the apple ios, while not perfect, is light years more stable and reliable than MS crap. i've had a macbook pro (mid-2009) since Feb. 2010. it has crashed/frozen exactly two times. it gets used on average 5 hours per day 7 days per week. no apps have frozen.

in the same timeframe, my dell, windows based machine has crashed an uncountable number of times and it is used on average 6 hours per day 4 days per week. this does not count the number of times individual applications in windows have frozen.

[brianw999]

Imagine this cockpit conversation while airborne....

Capt. "I'll fly it, you look up the charts."

FO. "OK"

FO. "Oh, Bollocks. My tablet has frozen/crashed."

There are now two options available to the crew. EITHER...

Capt. "OK, use mine while you reboot yours."

OR....

Capt. "OK, you have control, I'll use mine"

Either way...Problem solved ?

EDIT: I don't know if hard copy paper books and charts are still carried alongside tablets as a back up but that would be a third, albeit slower solution.

[3WE]

...Oh, Bollocks. My tablet has frozen/crashed...There are now two options available...Either way...Problem solved ?...I don't know if hard copy paper books and charts are still carried alongside tablets...

...as I stated above- why doesn't each flight have it's own little printout- Taxi diagram, DP, enroute summary, anticipated Arrival, a fairly short list of approaches and a taxi diagram...

Then IF something changes, the electronic plate library display device is available to pull up alternative stuff.

And IF THAT somehow fails (which happens pretty rarely- especially including Brian's double up point and Nav's beta-testing program), the pilot simply "cry's help" to ATC who could fairly simply talk them through the arrival and approach...

Hell, they could even login to the on-board wi-fi and download the publicly available charts (at airnav.com or flightaware.com or any number of places) to someone's smart phone.

Conversely- this stuff is laughable- not really a particularly big safety issue as much as a TOTAL INCONVENIENCE / DELAY DISASTER!!!!!

[3WE]

i'll take an ipad vs a surface 10 times per day, 9 ways to sunday.

the apple ios, while not perfect, is light years more stable and reliable than MS crap. i've had a macbook pro (mid-2009) since Feb. 2010. it has crashed/frozen exactly two times. it gets used on average 5 hours per day 7 days per week. no apps have frozen.

in the same timeframe, my dell, windows based machine has crashed an uncountable number of times and it is used on average 6 hours per day 4 days per week. this does not count the number of times individual applications in windows have frozen.

Sad & True...

Conversely, it just seems wrong to be getting critical stuff like approach plates from "The I-Tunes Store".

[Gabriel]

...as I stated above- why doesn't each flight have it's own little printout- Taxi diagram, DP, enroute summary, anticipated Arrival, a fairly short list of approaches and a taxi diagram...

Conversely- this stuff is laughable- not really a particularly big safety issue as much as a TOTAL INCONVENIENCE / DELAY DISASTER!!!!!

Until you consider this:

An Electronic Flight Bag, which replaces more than 35 pounds of paper-based reference material and manuals that pilots often carried in their carry-on kitbag, offers numerous benefits for American and its pilots.

All American pilots now enjoy the benefits associated with replacing their heavy kitbags – one of the airline's biggest sources of pilot injuries – with a 1.35-pound iPad. The digital format also requires less time to update each of the six or more paper manuals found in each pilot's kitbag, as manual paper revisions take hours to complete every month, compared to the minutes it takes for electronic updates.

Are they talking only about charts?

[Observer]

A new set of discussions in aviation

After Boeing vs. Airbus will we have Microsoft vs. Apple?

[Vnav]

I get it...

Men who fly genuine, metallic, non FBW, yoke-equipped aircraft use Microsoft.

Puppy pilots who fly cheap composite cracker boxes with toy joysticks use Apple.

(Sorry ATL )

Our single largest Corporate customer is Coca-Cola.

Number 2 is Microsoft......There was never any doubt that our electronic flight bags were going to be Windows based. (Also has a lot to do with our building up a hub in Seattle).

But what are we worrying about electronic flight bags for? According to half this forum, pretty soon there will be pilotless cockpits controlled by computers and then we won't have to care about EFB computers locking up.

[elaw]

After Boeing vs. Airbus will we have Microsoft vs. Apple?

It's the Cartesian product.

So Boeing + Microsoft vs. Boeing + Apple vs. Airbus + Microsoft vs. Airbus + Apple.

[Vnav]

BTW, as an update, the issue was with the Jeppesen charts portion of the EFB. Jeppesen makes two versions; Terminal Charts Pro (TC pro) for Apple devices and Flitedeck Pro for windows devices. The bugs were affecting TC Pro, but there were no issues with Flitedeck Pro.

I'm not nerdy enough care one way or the other in the Apple vs MS battle. The company gives me a free tablet and I use it for business purposes only.

[elaw]

Not sure if maybe this merits its own thread, but it's not just software on tablets that can cause problems: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05...es_generators/

"What's it doing now?"

"Nothing!"