Five Reason to NOT upgrade to iOS 5

The latest update to the operating systems for iPhones and iPads (known as iOS) as well as for Macs (MacOS) has not been without problems. Some of the issues are significant for pilots using the iPad as an electronic flight bag. While I normally feel relatively comfortable being on the bleeding edge of Apple's software releases, the latest releases of iOS and MacOS do not give me a warm fuzzy feeling. Those who have upgraded need to understand the unintended consequences of Apple's design changes.

Reason #1 - Data going missed

My original buying iPad advice for pilots on a budget was to opt for an iPad with less memory. 16Gb seemed to be fine for most of us, but the new WiFi syncing feature in iOS 5 has changed that advice. Apps that need to store a lot of data (like aviation charts) must now store that data in a user cache. The motivation was to force apps to store data in a location that would not be backed-up so as to reduce the amount of data transferred during WiFi syncing. Unfortunately, the user cache in iOS 5 is automatically cleaned up by the iOS if it starts running low on space. Download several seasons of Treme to your iPad along with the latest release from Coldplay and you might find you no longer have the approach charts you need. A cogent explanation can be found here.

It appears Apple engineers and marketeers made this design choice because they assumed that iPad users would always has access to a fast internet connection. Such hubris! Not everyone lives and works in an environment with 24/7 access to a blindingly fast network. Many of us use our iPads offline for the simple reason that internet access may not be available. In one fell swoop, iOS 5 threatens to hobble what is one of the best EFB platform produced to date by violating one of the basic tenants of any computing platform - data integrity. This cleaning feature needs to be undone, a setting needs to be provided to override this behavior, or another option needs to provided to apps that store a bunch of offline data. And something must be done and soon.

Reason #2 - Multi-tasking Gestures, for some

in a classic case of the large print giveth and the small print taketh away, iPad 1 users may have been led to think than upgrading to iOS 5 would provide them access to multi-tasking gestures, but only iPad 2 users get that feature. There's no valid technical reason for this restriction and since the half-life of these devices is relatively short, this appears to be a sort of planned obsolescence.

If Apple sticks it to customers who purchased the original iPad, the result may only be fewer loyal customers lining up to buy the iPad 3. There is this hack that purportedly allows iPad 1 users who upgrade to enable gestures in iOS 5. I haven't tried this hack myself or seen it, so use it at your own risk.

Reason #3 - iCloud just ain't there ... yet

The introduction of iCloud is reminiscent of the introduction MobileMe where allegedly there was a meeting with Steve Jobs and some of the developers. The story goes that Jobs asked for an explanation of what MobileMe was supposed to do. After listening to the explanations, Jobs purportedly asked "So why the ^%$ doesn't it do that?"

I'm accustomed to Apple designs being easy-to-use, but I must confess to being a bit flummoxed by iCloud. With MobileMe and iDisk, one could purchase storage space and store whatever data you wanted. The iCloud implementation is anything but open. You can store data from Numbers, Keynote, and Pages on iCloud, but I can't seem to store proprietary data. Supposedly one can create folders to organize stored material, but I can't seem to figure it out.

If you turn on the iCloud Backup, the good news is you won't need a desktop device to backup your iPad or iPhone. The bad news is you may fill up your complementary 5Gb of iCloud storage in a hurry. Material purchased from iTunes is stored for free, but I don't buy Apple's claim that 5GB goes a long way. Sure you can select which apps get backed up to the iCloud, but that turns in a part-time job. This is not the seamless user experience that Apple has been known for and the skeptic in me wonders if perhaps the real intent is for the sale of 100Gb of iCloud storage at $100/year to become a significant revenue stream.

Reason #4 - Mail, Contacts, and Calendar issues

For users who rely on mail, contact, and calendar access on multiple devices, iCloud is a mess. As a contract pilot and flight instructor I use three different devices - Macbook, iPhone, and iPad. Right after upgrading I was unable to retrieve email on any of my devices because iCloud complained my userid or password was invalid. Apparently Apple's servers were getting slammed because after eight hours, I was able to retrieve mail. Yet on my iPad I still see a message saying my Mac ID or password is incorrect. I went to the iCloud web site and changed my password to force things to reset, but when I changed my password on my iPad, it automatically changed back to the old password. The bizarre thing is that I can still retrieve my email! Avoiding this sort of time-consuming crap is why I started using Apple products in the first place.

My iCal calendar migrated just fine, but I can no longer share it with my wife (who hasn't yet upgraded to the latest version of MacOS). A big step backward.

Reason #5 - Security Issues

Every cloud-computing implementation is supposed to be convenient, but a lot of us seem to be ignoring (or denying) the possible security issues. Trivial uses of iCloud include storing purchased music and videos, but storing private or sensitive data is a much bigger risk.  Letting someone else store your data online is an especially convenient arrangement for thieves, criminals, and others who might not have your best interests at heart.

Knowing where your data is being stored and the laws that affect the jurisdiction where your data is stored is something many users don't consider.

Any cloud data storage provider worth their salt should be monitoring access to their cloud, but this is an expensive undertaking. Aside from basic physical and electronic access security, it's not clear than any cloud provider is doing much to ensure user data is not being compromised.

Root of all Evil

As any company becomes more and more successful, the inevitable erosion in quality of customer service occurs. I don't know if it's the mania for continued growth, the thirst for more income streams, the influx of marketeers and bean-counters, or just the sheer number of user, but Apple's image appears to this long-time customer as being more than a bit tarnished.

Captain Snarky

Don't Use for Navigation!

The mainstream aviation press is saying good things about Jeppesen Mobile FD, but I'm not sure where to start. As a long-time Jeppesen customer, I've found myself saying things like "Sure Jeppesen products are more expensive and offer fewer features than other iPad EFB solutions, but this is just the first release." Or "Jeppesen has always offered a premium product and heck, some major airlines are planning to use their software on the iPad - That's pretty good." Or "Someday Jeppesen will provide MacOS-based installers, I'm sure of it." Then I remember that one of the goals of blogging is to provide readers with the unvarnished truth. After many hours of using Jeppesen Mobile FD in-flight, here's what I see as the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Bang for the Buck

Let's get this out front, in case you haven't heard: Jeppesen Mobile FD subscriptions are overpriced. Not just a little, waaay overpriced. Currently there is only support for geo-referenced en route charts in Jepp Mobile FD and a subscription covering just California costs about $125 a year. For $150 a year, I get ForeFlight with geo-referenced en route and approach charts for all the areas supported by Aeronav - That's the entire US, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the South Pacific. Add in ForeFlight's weather briefing and flight planning features and it's pretty easy to justify the annual cost.

A fairer comparison to Jeppesen Mobile FD is SkyCharts Pro, which offers only minimal weather features. SkyCharts Pro costs $20 a year for the same US chart coverage as ForeFlight. Compare that to many hundreds of dollars a year for similar Jepp coverage and, well that's just embarrassing.

Jeppesen does provide chart support for many foreign countries, but for US fliers it's hard to justify the cost.

The Good

Jeppesen has nice chart products that are clean and easy to read. Jepp charts provide added value with touches like a wider range of approach speeds and descent or climb rates in feet per minute. Jepp also describes the effects of inoperative equipment right in the minima section, which is very user-friendly.

Don't Use for Navigation!

Jeppesen adds some value, but since Aeronav adopted the briefing strip format a while back, there's not a lot of difference between the two product lines. Jepps don't provide an inset map like the Aeronav charts, which is a huge dis-advantage when conducting a circling approach. Yet pilots get attached to Jepps and find Aeronav charts foreign and clumsy, leading to an argument not unlike North-up versus Track-up or the old pitch/power debate. Whatever ...

Once Jepp Mobile FD is installed, downloading charts seems simple enough if you have a fast network. I'm blessed with a fast ADSL network (you can throw a rock from my front porch and hit the telco's switch building), so the updates seldom take more than a few minutes to install.

The Mobile FD interface has a clean appearance and the chart display is good. There's an easy-to-access screen dimmer, too. There is the issue of landscape format SIDs and STARs, but Aeronav has the same problem.

Jepp Mobile FD's flight planning function lets you specify alternate airports, a great feature and something Garmin has neglected in their GPS flight planning interface for over a decade. And Mobile FD lets you quickly access the terminal procedures for all the airports in your flight plan, something SkyCharts Pro and ForeFlight could learn from.

Wart Factor

The flight planning feature understands most victor airways, with some caveats. If your route includes intersecting victor airways, you must include the intersection that the airways have in common. The flight planner doesn't seem to understand departure or arrival procedures either. Bummer about that.

See the Clear button above the route? Tap on it and you clear not just the route, but all the airports, too! This is dumb for a bunch of obvious reasons. First, said button is located just above route, which leads one to assume that tapping it will clear just the route. Second, the button doesn't say Clear All. Third, there are a bunch of times I'd want to clear a route during the planning stage without blowing away the departure, destination, and alternate airports. Lastly, there is already an X button at the end of each of the airport fields so you can clear them individually. I don't know who is doing Jeppesen's U/I design and usability testing, but they could use some help.

Having spent the better part of my adult life involved in software development, I get the impression that time-to-market pressures overshadowed Jeppesen's QA and acceptance testing. The first version of Mobile FD had more bugs than an Illinois barbecue in June. Subsequent versions have gotten better. The latest version finally offers geo-referencing, but only on en route charts. That's a step in the right direction, but the geo-referencing is clunky and counter-intuitive: You have to tap a button to get Mobile FD to interface with your GPS receiver. All the other iPad EFB software I've used just see that the GPS is there and use it.

Once you've gotten Mobile FD to recognize your iPad's GPS, keep in mind that geo-referencing will be disabled when you display your flight plan. What's up with that? I found that the en route geo-referencing can get ... um ... confused. While supervising an instrument student who was flying a practice DME arc, Mobile FD had some difficulty figuring out which way the aircraft was headed. SkyCharts Pro and ForeFlight had no problem displaying the correct track.

FFM isn't confused ...

SkyCharts Pro isn't confused ...

You're headed the wrong way McFly!

Ugly, Really Ugly

If all this wasn't enough tarnish on the hallowed Jeppesen reputation, here's the capper. Jeppesen Mobile FD's latest chart release contains out-of-date charts for California. That's right. Jeppesen didn't notify me or, to my knowledge, any of their customers. I happened to discover this on my own and had to query them. The two examples I know of (there may be more) are the new RNAV approaches to Petaluma and Willows-Glenn, which replaced the old GPS approaches.

Don't Use for Navigation

Guess we wait until Sept 21?

The new RNAV approaches don't just offer LPV minima that are considerably lower, the fix names and approach courses have changed significantly. Trying to fly one of these approaches with an out-of-date chart could be a serious safety-of-flight issue.

When I emailed Jeppesen's tech support about this, the response was that these approaches would be in the next release. I asked them to verify that Jepp Mobile FD didn't contain all the current charts for California and their response was that the FAA made a large number of changes that overwhelmed Jeppesen's charting division. And for this they charge a premium price?

It's Got to Get Better

I've been a Jeppesen customer for many years, but it keeps getting harder and harder to justify the expense. Buggy software, no MacOS support, and Windows software that can make you want to tear you hair out. I want to like Jeppesen, really I do. It's just not clear that Jeppesen cares about me.

A Few New Apps

I do my best to keep up with all the new stuff that keeps coming out and I owe debt of gratitude to the folks who send me pointers and suggestions. Here's a round-up of a few new iPad/iPhone apps.

AirWx

For those times when you want to get a quick view of the area weather before getting an official weather briefing, AirWx is a very handy app. For a low $10 purchase price you can look up an airport and add it to a list of favorites that can offer a quick snapshot of the weather. There is no recurring subscription costs. As the developer says on his web site - "buy once, use forever."

Favorite Airports Wx

In addition to surface weather and terminal area forecasts for a particular airport, AirWx also offers winds aloft, NOTAMs, PIREPs, terminal procedures, and (for an extra charge) aircraft arrival and departure information. You can save terminal procedures to your iPad for use when network access is not available, but this requires manually opening and saving each chart you want to cache.

Terminal Procedures List

Under the Maps & Charts tabs you'll find VFR sectionals, NEXRAD radar, and a variety of weather charts. There currently isn't any way to cache VFR sectionals for use when you have no network access.

The last tab provides access to a variety of E6B calculations.

CFITools Preflight Wx

If you're looking for an integrated app for getting your pre-flight planning ducks in a row, it's hard to imagine a more comprehensive app than CFITools. The acronym NWKRAFT is sometimes used by pilots to remember the requirements of 14 CFR 91.103 "Preflight Action" - Notams, Weather, Known delays, Runway lengths, Alternate airports, Fuel requirements, and Takeoff/landing performance. CFITools helps you with several of these requirements - weather, runway lengths, and takeoff/landing performance for selected types of aircraft. All for a $30 investment.

Using the Current WX tab, enter a departure airport and you'll see a graphic representation of the winds and the airport's runways along with the headwind and crosswind component for those runways. You'll also see a historical plotting of the winds, visibility, ceiling, altimeter and dew point. If you're a student pilot, this is a quick way to see if the crosswind component is within the limits of your solo endorsement.

You can also create a weight and balance specification using one of the existing templates or you can create your own. If you want a record of your calculations or want to send the results to your instructor, just tap on Email.

Next comes takeoff and landing performance. Select one of the 16 available types, select the departure or destination airport, tap on Get Wx, then enter the aircraft's weight and you'll see takeoff and landing performance for the specified conditions. You get performance info for clearing a 50 foot obstacle. There isn't a way to add performance data for your own aircraft, so hopefully the type you fly is one of the supported types. For the one multi-engine aircraft supported (the Cessna 310), it would be nice to also see accelerate/stop distance, single-engine climb rate, and single-engine service ceiling. Easy for me to say, but much harder for an app developer to code!

Radio Navigation Trainer

Whether you're a student pilot still trying to master VOR and NDB navigation or a pilot who has been spending too much time flying glass panels, the RadioNav Sim could be just the ticket. This $2 app lets you display two navaid of your choice - RBI, RMI, VOR or HSI. You can drag the aircraft shown on the display and drag the OBS on both displays.

Help lines let you see the selected radial or bearing. You can turn these on or off. You can also choose to hide the aircraft if you want to test your orientation skills.

And if you want to test your VOR abilities, just tap on the Quiz Me button.

All That's Fit to Print

For iPad users who don't happen to have one of the HP printers supported by iOS 4.3.1, there's an inexpensive MacOS application that will let you print from your iPad to the printer(s) you have using your Mac. You can download Printopia for free, try it out, and if you like it, purchase it for just $10. You'll need a desktop or laptop machine running Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 and iOS 4.2 on your iPhone/iPod/iPad, and a printer, but this is still more affordable than buying a dedicated printer for your iPad.

Playing Favorites

Got a favorite aviation app? Shoot me an email or post a comment.

Enabling iPad Multi-tasking Gestures

Multi-tasking was made available in iOS last November, but I was surprised to learn that there is a hidden feature known as multi-tasking gestures that allows you to quickly switch between applications. Though Apple hasn't officially made multi-tasking gestures available for the masses, there is a way to turn on this iPad feature and it doesn't involve jail-breaking. You'll need an Apple computer capable of running the latest version of Xcode and you'll need to purchase and download Xcode, which will cost you $4.99. The download and installation of Xcode will take 10 or 15 minutes, but once you have all these pieces enabling multi-tasking gestures takes about 10 seconds.

Connect your iPad to Xcode and click on Use for development. Xcode will ask for your iOS developer credentials, but just click on cancel. You'll see an error message which you can ignore. Disconnect your iPad and you'll see a new option in Settings->General.

The new gestures made a big difference for me when using the iPad in the cockpit. I use Penultimate to write down clearances or record the surface weather, but then I switch to an approach chart viewed in SkyCharts Pro or some other chart viewer. Problem is, I often forget something that I've written down and before multi-tasking gestures I found myself fumbling to get back to the notes I'd written. Now I simply swipe four fingers horizontally and voila! There are my notes. Rather than having to swipe left or right, I do wish that the scrolling between the apps was implemented with a circularly linked list. That way one could just keep scrolling left or right and cycle continuously through the apps.

Apple is bound to enable this feature for everyone eventually, so you can always wait for the next release of iOS if you don't want to go through this process. Overall, I find this hack dramatically improves the iPad's usability in the cockpit.  Check it out!

Night Regulations

Flying at night is one of the more enjoyable experiences a pilot can have. There tend to be less aircraft flying, controllers tend to be more relaxed, and once the sun goes down the weather tends to calm down. Nighttime is a great time to learn or practice simulated instrument flying because a view-limiting device is more effective in the dark and it's easier for your instructor or safety pilot to see other traffic. Unlike most ICAO countries, US regulations generally permit private pilots and above to fly at night without the need of a special rating, but the regulations on logging night flight and maintaining night recency of experience are a bit complicated. So break out your flashlight and take a somewhat circuitous journey through night flight regulations. Along the way, I'll point out some different resources pilots can use to determine when, depending on the situation, nighttime begins and ends.

Definitions of Night

Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (aka 14 CFR) contains several definitions of, and references to, night and nighttime. It would be nice if all these definitions were found all in one place, but they aren't. So start at the beginning, 14 CFR part 1, where many (but not all) definitions used in title 14 are found.

14 CFR - 1: Night means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the American Air Almanac, converted to local time.

Any flight time between the beginning and end of civil twilight can be logged as night time, but not so for night landings and takeoffs (more on that later). Finding out when civil twilight begins and ends is a bit more involved. If you know when sunset has occurred or if you can see the sunset while on the ground, you can approximate the beginning of civil twilight as being about 30 minutes after sunset. I say approximate because there are locations where, depending on the time of year, the sun just barely sets and this rule of thumb won't work.

Anytime sunset is imminent or has occurred, remember that 14 CFR 91.209 requires you to turn on your aircraft's position lights (sometimes called "nav lights"). When it comes to anti-collision light, the pilot-in-command may elect to turn them off if it's in the interest of safety. So don't taxi around other pilots on the ramp with your strobes needlessly blazing. For aircraft operating in Alaska, the rules are different because ... well ... Alaska is different.

Most of us don't have internet access while in flight, but IFR-certified and handheld GPS receivers can tell you the time of sunset and sunrise for your current location. Finding that information isn't always easy, but it's there.

If you have internet access, the US Naval Observatory web site is a good place to find out when civil twilight ends and begins. You can enter the day, month, year, city and state or enter latitude and longitude to see the details. Note that the date you specify may today or it can in the past or in the future.

A free iPad/iPhone app, Skyclock Lite, lets you easily determine sunset, sunrise, and the beginning and end of civil twilight based on your location. The nice thing about Skyclock Lite is that you can configure it to show sunset and the various types of twilight (civil, nautical, and astronomical) on an analog clock face or as a block of text. And did I mention it was free?

Night Landing Currency

Another important night regulation has to do with recency of experience for pilots who want to carry passengers, found in 14 CFR 61.57 (b) (emphasis added).

... no person may act as pilot in command of an aircraft carrying passengers during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise, unless within the preceding 90 days that person has made at least three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise ..."

So if you haven't done at least three night takeoffs and three night landings to a full stop in an aircraft of the same category and class, you can only carry passengers up to 1 hour after sunset. It's hard to imagine a scenario where you'd not be current for night landings, have passengers on board, and need to land 1 hour before sunrise. I guess you could have departed the previous day around sunset and flown all night ...

When it comes logging flight time and tracking night takeoffs and landings, an app like LogTen Pro makes it easy. Once you've entered your departure and destination, you need only note your out/in times and LogTen Pro will figure out how much of the flight occurred at night and whether your landings and takeoffs count toward your day or night currency. For PC users out there, I suspect that Logbook Pro has a similar capability. Otherwise, you'll need to track these times manually.

More Fine Print

Also found in 14 CFR 61 is a night flying restriction on commercial pilots who don't hold an instrument rating. These guys and gals must make up a very small minority of the commercial pilot population in the US, but they may not carry passengers for hire at night.

Other pilots restricted from flying at night include sport pilots, recreational pilots, and student pilots (unless they have a separate night flying endorsement from their instructor). Alaskan pilots who earned their private pilot certificate during the summer may not have been able to experience nighttime conditions and can be issued a certificate with a night flying restriction, but that restriction has to be removed within 12 calendar months.

The FAA recently published a letter of interpretation that states an instructor who is not current for night landings may be provide instruction to a pilot who is also not current for night landings. The reasoning is that for the purposes of night recency of experience only, the instructor is not considered to be a passenger. Maybe it's just me, but this seems like some convoluted logic.

Pilots who fail the color vision portion of their medical examination will normally be issued a medical certificates that states that they are prohibited from flying at night. Depending on the severity of their impairment, a color blind pilot may be able to obtain a letter of authorization (referred to as a Statement of Demonstrated Ability or SODA) by passing an examination with an FAA inspector. The pilot must demonstrate they can correctly identify light gun signals from a control tower as well as other types of runway and obstruction lights. The details on this process can be found in the FAA's FSIMS, Volume 5, Chapter 8.

NTSB, SODA, and Nighttime

One night accident involving a pilot with color blindness occurred in 2002 when a Federal Express 727-232 descended prematurely into trees on final approach to runway 9. The first officer was the pilot flying and had a first class medical and was issued a SODA for color blindness based on his military service record. A video recreation of the accident can be found here.

In the November 2003 letter, the Chief of the USAFSAM Aerospace Ophthalmology Branch stated that the first officer's color vision discrimination was impaired to an extent that would ìlimit him to very nearly a gray-blue-yellow world, we believe that he would definitely have had problems discriminating the PAPIs as they were designed because the red lights would not appear to be red at all, but some other wavelength that would make them more indistinguishable from white. The letter also stated that it might be possible for someone with this type of [color vision] deficiency to use brightness differences between the white and red PAPI lights to help differentiate between them.

The entire report is available here and NTSB's probable cause included this statement (emphasis added).

Contributing to the accident was a combination of the captain's and first officer's fatigue, the captainís and first officer's failure to adhere to company flight procedures, the captainís and flight engineers failure to monitor the approach, and the first officer's color vision deficiency.

The NTSB has also taken issue with the FAA's definition of night in mountainous areas. In 2001 a Gulfstream III on an instrument approach into Aspen-Pitkin County Airport descended into terrain just 2400 feet shy of the runway threshold. A contributing factor was that the instrument approach being used was not authorized at night, nighttime had not technically arrived. The NTSB recommended that the FAA review the definition of nighttime in mountainous areas because in this case, the sun had disappeared behind the mountains a full 25 minutes before official sunset. In this situation, nighttime-like conditions, low visibility, unlighted terrain and a flight crew intent on landing proved to be a deadly combination.


Regs, Theory, and Practice

There's a lot more that goes into safe and successful night flying, including physiology, equipment, planning, and risk assessment, but that's the skinny on FAA night regs and civil twilight. And while the regulations surrounding night flight may be convoluted, actually flying at night can be enjoyable, contemplative, even peaceful. So as a tower controller who worked the night shift in Las Vegas used to say when handing an aircraft off to the departure controller, "Good Flight and Good Night."

iPad2 Takes Flight

Between weather and aircraft maintenance, getting the iPad2 into the air has proven more difficult than anticipated. Yesterday's afternoon flight was scrubbed due to a dead battery, but I did manage one flight in the morning. The iPad2 performed just fine during the 1.9 hour flight, leaving me confident enough to box up the original iPad for shipment to its new owner. Here are my impressions of the iPad2 in flight along with some thoughts for current iPad owners on the relative advantages of upgrading.

Size and Weight

The iPad2's slightly smaller size and thinner profile not only makes the iPad2 lighter, cases like the semi-rigid one that I'm using are also smaller and lighter. This means my minimalist flight bag is noticeably more minimal when I pick it up. The iPad2 feels lighter when you hold it and it's definitely lighter when strapped to my leg. The thinner profile makes the 30-pin connector look a bit precarious when inserted. Same for the audio port. This could be a consideration for folks who use the Bad Elf GPS Receiver with a 30pin extention cable.

Thin profile means plug connections could be more fragile?

The new size means some of the iPad1 kneeboard solutions may require modification. For more details, see my previous post on this topic.

Lights, Camera ...

The iPad2 has two built-in cameras, one rear-facing and one front-facing. If you are familiar with the iPhone4, it's a similar set-up. I say similar because the quality of the rear-facing is not very good at all (actually, it sucks). One would assume that a lower quality camera kept the iPad2 unit cost down, but it makes one wonder why Apple bothered at all.

Here are some photos I took and while the quality is not great, using the iPad2 camera did provide a déjà vu moment. The iPad2's screen is so large and bright that while framing a photo I was reminded of bygone days (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) when I regularly used a large format view camera, except the iPad2 image is right side up. Oh, and you don't need a mammoth tripod and dark cloth. Of course the iPad2 camera can't provide view camera features like swing, shift, and tilt that architectural photographers rely on.

I haven't tried the iPad2 video capability, but the front-facing camera lets you make video calls using FaceTime and one imagines that eventually Skype will provide video support for the iPad. The addition of these cameras doesn't really add much value for pilots. I guess when trying to electronically copy a large sheet of paper it could be easier to frame with the iPad2 as opposed to an iPhone4. The image quality is undoubtedly better with the iPhone4's camera.

Speed & Clarity

The faster graphics performance of the iPad2 is evident when loading a terminal procedure in ForeFlight, SkyCharts Pro or Jeppesen's app. Scrolling around on charts is also faster. Downloading chart updates seems quite a bit faster, too.

The iPad2 screen is not terribly different from the original iPad except that it offers a wider range of brightness. You can make it much dimmer and a tad brighter than the original. Note these images have been adjusted to try to capture the relative brightness settings.

Brightest setting ...

Dimmest setting ...

Certify This

Some have observed that operators who just received OpSpec authorization for using the iPad1 as an electronic flight bag (EFB) may now be faced with certifying a new device if they wish to upgrade. I'm not certain of the particulars, but it does seem incredibly inefficient and expensive for the FAA to require individual operators to replicate decompression and electromagnetic testing on the self-same device. At least they won't have to change the approved training programs since it will be the same software, just running on a slightly different device.

Other Features

The GNS 5870 Bluetooth GPS Receiver worked just as well with the iPad2 as it did with the old iPad1. As before, ForeFlight showed my position on approach charts and airport diagrams. With both SkyCharts Pro and ForeFlight the groundspeed and heading readouts closely (often exactly) matched the KLN 94 GPS displayed values. The GPS-derived altitude was within 50 feet of the altimeter most of the time. The GNS 5870 achieves satellite lock so quickly that I don't really know how long it's taking. My only complaint continues to be the touchiness of the swipe-style on/off switch. It's just too easy to inadvertently turn the thing on when stowing it in your flight bag.

For non-aviation use, there are some other features of interest. Using a HDMI connector (available separately), you can mirror your iPad2's screen on a larger monitor.

Battery life of the iPad2 seems on par with the earlier model; about 10 hours.

The new magnetic cover looks cool, but it isn't designed to work with a case and than makes it a non-starter for me. It's interesting to note that the iPad2 itself contains 10 magnets and the cover contains 21 magnets. Call me old-fashioned, but lot of magnets seems like a bad idea in a cockpit. I haven't done any testing with the magnetic cover in the cockpit since I don't plan on using it, but my anecdotal observations are that with the iPad2 strapped to my leg there didn't seem to be any adverse effects on the compass in the Piper I was teaching in yesterday. I observed the aircraft compass on the ground through 360 degrees of heading change and it seemed to accurately indicate known headings. The aircraft compass aligned correctly with three different runways at two different airports. This is something I'll continue to watch in the coming weeks.

Preliminary investigation of the iPad2 accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass features seems to indicate that there isn't an app at the moment that can provide accurate Attitude Heading and Reference (AHARs) features. The idea of using an iPad in flight as a back-up attitude indicator may seem ridiculous, but keep in mind that only a year ago a lot of things seemed farfetched.

Apps 'n Stuff

People new to the iPad game always ask what apps I recommend. Here are the apps I've used on the iPad2 so far:

SkyCharts Pro - Limited wx features, but best chart-based EFB app around.

ForeFlight Mobile HD - Interface is a bit cumbersome, but this EFB app does it all from weather to approach plates.

ForeFlight Checklist Pro - Fly a lot of different aircraft? With a bit of effort on your part, this app can help you keep it all straight.

Jeppesen Mobile TC - Limited features right now, but if you must have Jepp charts ...

AvCharts - Low cost way to carry and access terminal procedures. Only app that allows you to make notes on a chart.

LogTen Mobile - This logbook app may actually have too many bells and whistles, but if you have a special logging requirement, this app can probably do it.

DUAT - Simplified way to access your DUAT account, get weather briefings, file flight plans, etc.

Square - Cost-effective way for self-employed professionals to accept credit card payments.

Penultimate - My favorite note taking app.

PFMA - Easiest-to-use electronic E6B I've found.

GoodReader - Not just good, this is a great PFD reader. Use it to read all those FAA handbooks you're carrying inside your iPad.

Atomic Web Browser - Does a few things the built-in Safari browser can't do.

 Numbers - Not exactly like Excel, but if you need spreadsheet capability on the iPad then this is a good choice.

 Pages - Solid word processing app, though a bluetooth keyboard makes it more usable.

 Keynote - Let's you give PowerPoint presentations with your iPad. Add this app and you'll have your audience yawning in no time!

 EverNote - Great way to take, save, and distribute notes across multiple platforms.

As for accessories I'm using or have used and recommend:

GNS 5870 MFI Bluetooth GPS Receiver
Tietco Kneeboard
Square Credit Card Reader

Upgrade or Wait

More speed is always better, but for frugal pilots I'm not sure the iPad2's speed bump and lighter weight are worth the cost and trouble of upgrading. Pilots who already have an iPad1 or who are considering acquiring a used iPad1 may actually get more bang for the buck. If you do decide to purchase a new iPad2, I personally don't see a need for more than 32Mb of memory. I chose the 16Mb version. I don't store music or videos on my device, but with several chart apps and associated data, lots of FAA handbooks, a PDF version of the AIM, and so on, I still have 8Gb of free space out of 14Gb. So why did I upgrade, you ask? Well it's obvious! Nerds like me must do whatever we can to preserve what little blogosphere cachet we possess. We must!