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.

Comments

Electronics

[mfh]

See? I knew it was okay to use electronics during takeoff and landing! The pilots are using them!!! SEE??!?!!

Re:Hope it's not IMPORTANT documentation

[multipartmixed]

I'd hate to think of a pilot realizing his iPad is running low on power just when he needs critical info..

I'd hate to think of a pilot realizing his fuel tank is running low on fuel just when he needs to perform a critical maneuver (like not crash).

I wonder how the heck they solved that problem?!?!?!

Re:Specific?

[Joce640k]

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?

Re:Hope it's not IMPORTANT documentation

[vlm]

What documents could they even be carrying that are considered critical/vital for a safe landing?

The ipad breaks.
The paper printouts of both the pilot and copilot get coffee dumped on them (at least some pilots I know like to plan flights on their desktop PC and then print out neatly annotated paperwork specifically for their flight.... the charts for some airport 100 miles away are for emergency diversion use not daily flying)
Then the pilot's phone breaks (lots of pilots have a charts app on their phone)
Then the copilots phone breaks.
Then both redundant comm radios break so they can't ask ATC for help (This doesn't scale if no one ever carries plates and everyone pesters ATC for every little detail every time, but a 1 in a billion accident in a crazy scenario is perfectly scalable...)
Then they're too low on fuel to fly that triangle pattern (I forget the exact shape but its the pattern that means holy shit I'm lost please send me an escort)
Then the mode C transponder fails so they can't change the code to emergency thus getting themselves an "escort", but the mode C failure isn't noticed by ATC who naturally think the plane just crashed so they scramble everyone over to look at you. So this is a weird situation... maybe if the transponder and its circuit breaker had superglue sprayed all over it?
Then the "sat phone" system fails so they can't call the tower phone or any other person in the entire world who has charts
Then every single cell phone on the plane fails ... low and slow and you can use cell phones on a plane just fine... Cell network can't tell difference between my Cessna 172 at 1000 feet and 60 knots from my car on the side of a 1000 foot hill at 60 MPH... Yes, I know, its not gonna work well at 35000 feet and 500 MPH, but then again you don't have much to worry about up there.
Then the landing lights have to fail so you can't communicate with a tower via morse light flashing. SOS landing lights will get them all wound up..
Then the built in GPS which also usually has charts and data has to fail (admittedly, usually no NOTAMs...)
Also the pilots hand held GPS has to fail (lots of pilots have a GPS stuffed in their flight bag, right next to the flashlight) and the copilots.
Then bad weather over a large area has to roll in so they can't simply go VFR approach and just eyeball it (gonna be a rough, but probably safe, landing)
There have to be no other planes in the air to follow or get attention of..
The compass and a couple primary flight instruments and the clock all have to fail so they can't dead reckon their position (like over the ocean or something)
Well, lets say both pilots are new to the area so they can't rely on memory.

There's probably a few other things that have to break that I haven't thought of before a ipad failure will take out a plane. Then again if more than a dozen other things listed above all also have to break simultaneously its hard to give JUST the ipad all the credit for crashing the plane.