Night Vision and the iPad

Flying at night in a dark cockpit with an iPad can be frustrating because the screen brightness controls are limited and difficult to access. Even at the lowest brightness setting, displaying an approach chart is pretty hard on night vision adaptation, but there is a built-in feature that can help. File this under "I should have known about this feature, but only just learned about it." (Thanks Dennis!)

Tap on Settings and select Accessibility, then set Triple-click Home to White/Black. This allows you to triple-click on the home key to toggle the display between normal and inverse.

Here's how an approach chart looks in inverse mode, which is much easier on the eyes at night.

The terminal procedures selection screen in inverse mode is also much easier on the eyes.

This is an IFR low altitude en route chart in inverse mode. It looks a bit weird at first, but it's actually quite usable.

On the other hand, VFR sectionals in inverse mode are a bit trippy.

With the night display issue pretty much solved, my next wish is to have IOS 4.2 and multitasking on the iPad in early November, though it may be closer to Thanksgiving before it's available.

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