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FAA Permits American Airlines To Use iPads In Cockpit "In All Phases of Flight"
hypnosec writes "American Airlines has announced that it has received permission from FAA to allow its pilots to use iPads in the cockpit during 'all phases of flight.' According to the airlines, the tablet will enable pilots to store documentation in electronic form on the iPad which otherwise weighs 15.876 kg (35 pounds) when in printed form. Use of the digital documentation will enable the airlines to save as much as U.S. $1.2 million of fuel each year." That number sounds both awfully low and awfully specific.
According to the airlines, the tablet will enable pilots to store documentation in electronic form on the iPad which otherwise weighs 15.875 kg (35 pounds) when in printed form.
That's great, as long as the documentation in question isn't actually vital or particularly important. I'd hate to think of a pilot realizing his iPad is running low on power just when he needs critical info...or realizing that some things are still a lot better on a printed page (like a big fold-out schematic). "Mayday...I'm going down because the airline decided to save a buck by converting our fuel system diagram to a fucking app!...over."
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
See? I knew it was okay to use electronics during takeoff and landing! The pilots are using them!!! SEE??!?!!
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
If the iPad is not charged then obviously they... plug it into the outlet i the cockpit and charge it. And how exactly is their offline documentation going to get 'hacked'? And how would it be any more of a problem then someone maliciousy changing their printed documents?
There's a difference between having 1 or 2 devices under direct control of the flight crew powered up, and having a hundred devices over which they have only marginal control. And, can you imagine the pissing and moaning which would follow if the FAA said "iPads are OK" for public use, but nothing else.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
What I wanna know is: If saving a few pounds adds up to so much fuel then why aren't they weighing passengers and charging them accordingly? How come an extra bag costs me $50 but the 350lb guy pays the same fare as a 120lb guy?
No sig today...
Tell ya what. Here's a thirty-five pound case filled with binders, all stuffed with papers. Why don't you check each page to guarantee that every single one is in place, up-to-date and undamaged, while I ensure that between these two electronic tablets that the pilot and co-pilot are carrying, at least one of them will power up and run the appropriate reader app.
Go ahead. I'll wait for you. Take all the time you need.
Then, make sure that you repeat that check before every single flight. THEN you can go on about how bug-free your big bag of charts and checklists is.
What I wanna know is: If saving a few pounds adds up to so much fuel then why aren't they weighing passengers and charging them accordingly? How come an extra bag costs me $50 but the 350lb guy pays the same fare as a 120lb guy?
The paper manuals are not likely to complain, boycott or sue for discrimination. That's why.
As for plane docs, it doesn't really matter as long as the ipad is highly reliable.
I don't think any Avionics expert would call the iPad "highly reliable".
You use the same checklist over and over to make sure you don't forget anything... its 99.999% good without a checklist (literally) so once or twice is no big deal.
I've never heard that the iPad gives 5 9's of reliability.
But assuming that it is, it's that .0001% of the time when the iPad is not available that is the problem. The pilot goes through the identical checklist on every single flight, then that one time the iPad won't boot, he has to play it by ear, change his routine, and hope that he didn't miss anything. That's what causes accidents and is why there is a checklist in the first place. Just telling the pilot that he has to pay more attention this time because he can't run through the checklist goes against human nature since it means that he'll be so focused on the flaps that he'll forget to adjust the rudder trim (or whatever it is that airline pilots do in their checklists)
There is some truth that the ipad will probably be more up to date and less likely to have a page torn out or coffee dumped on it than paper. It'll likely be more reliable as a system, even if it doesn't degrade smoothly.
I'd rather have my pilot try to decipher an emergency checklist on a torn up page than stare at his reflection in a blank iPad screen.
I still have paper documentation in my datacenter that tells me how to recover key servers because I know that technology sometimes fails, despite redundant safeguards.
No reason this should be restricted to apple products as an android tablet would work just as well to view pdf files, but still, very reasonable savings estimate.
You dont know the FAA then. I have two headsets, a Bose X and a Lightspeed Zulu. Both have the same 1/4" plugs and the slightly smaller one for the mic, both transmit the audio to the headset, both have (various degrees of) noisecancelling microphones, both use active noise cancellation.
But.... one has been shown to conform to a technical standards order (TSO) and one has not. So I can wear one of them at work, and one of them I cannot. All the TSO is btw is some standards on how the headset performs in certain situations, but the mfgr has to pay for the testing and certification. Both headsets work great, in fact the non-TSO one works better, but since word came down that we were not authorized to use non-TSO equipment, I cant wear it.
Its entirely plausible that apple has gone through a special certification process, and others have not. Typical of the FAA the certification is restricted to specific models, so you couldnt do something like certify "android", you would have to certify a specific hardware model with a specific version of the android OS.
I imagine these would be "controlled" iPads, updated by the flight management staff of the airline. They are running a specialised app from Jeppesen, who have benn producing flight charts for ever, so I should imagine it probably has a custom and controlled update system.
Just because they use consumer equipment, they don't have to use it in the consumer manner.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
Actually, the main reason for the whole "seat backs up, tray tables closed, put away your portable electronics" rule is that the takeoff and landing are the most dangerous parts of a flight, and if something goes wrong, people need to be able to respond, need to not be distracted, and need to not have extra impediments to moving within the cabin.
So why it it ok to read a bulky 30 ounce, $30 hardback book during takeoff/landing, but a 6 ounce $60 Kindle has to be put away?
And yet they have no rules against a person sleeping during these times, or talking to the person beside them. They also do not try to stop people from reading non-electronic material.
The "distraction" excuse is a bunch of B.S. It's paranoia based on concepts that have been obsolete for at least 2 decades.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'