Michelle Steiner

<http://www.electronista.com/articles...lot.manuals.ch
arts.for.ipads/>

updated 12:50 pm EDT, Tue August 23, 2011
United swaps pilot manuals, charts for iPads

United Airlines and its soon-to-be-joined partner Continental staked out a
first for flight by making itself the first major carrier in the US to
completely drop paper among its 11,000 pilots by using the iPad. Along with
shedding paper flight manuals, it's now the first of its size to replace
its charts with the Apple tablet as well. Each iPad will carry Jeppesen
Mobile FliteDeck (free, App Store) to provide worldwide maps in context.

Like other airlines, United is keen to show that it's both helping the
pilots as well as pushing its green credentials. The combined savings on
manuals and charts should eliminate about 38 pounds of weight from a
typical flight bag. It may save as much as 326,000 gallons of fuel every
year and theoretically spare 1,900 trees' worth of paper over the same
space of time.

United isn't the first start moving in the paperless direction and was
preceded by Alaska Airlines among majors getting manuals. FAA testing,
however, has prevented most carriers from going the same route for charts
until now.

Apple so far has almost complete control of tablets' use in the air. With
the exception of American Airlines' Galaxy Tabs in the passenger section,
the iPad has been the predominant choice both for pilots and for actual
customers. Both its advantage as first on the market as well as its wider
app catalog have been considered crucial where rivals have only been an
option for the past few months and don't have the equivalent in apps.

--
Tea Party Patriots is to Patriotism as
People's Democratic Republic is to Democracy.

Tom Harrington

In article <michelle-F06324.10153823082011@news.eternal-september.org>,
Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org> wrote:

> United swaps pilot manuals, charts for iPads

Yes but will they have to turn them off during take-off and landing?

--
Tom "Tom" Harrington
Independent Mac OS X developer since 2002
http://www.atomicbird.com/

hwh

On 8/23/11 9:35 PM, Tom Harrington wrote:
> In article <michelle-F06324.10153823082011@news.eternal-september.org>,
> Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org> wrote:
>
>> United swaps pilot manuals, charts for iPads
>
> Yes but will they have to turn them off during take-off and landing?

Flight mode might do the trick :-)

gr, hwh

nobody@nowhere.com

Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org> wrote

><http://www.electronista.com/articles...lot.manuals.ch
>arts.for.ipads/>
>
>updated 12:50 pm EDT, Tue August 23, 2011
>United swaps pilot manuals, charts for iPads
>
>United Airlines and its soon-to-be-joined partner Continental staked out a
>first for flight by making itself the first major carrier in the US to
>completely drop paper among its 11,000 pilots by using the iPad. Along with
>shedding paper flight manuals, it's now the first of its size to replace
>its charts with the Apple tablet as well.

They must have backups though. No way could a single electronic device
replace printed approach charts etc.

>Each iPad will carry Jeppesen
>Mobile FliteDeck (free, App Store) to provide worldwide maps in context.

Mobile Flitedeck is a piece of shit. Actually its Windows predecessor,
also called Flitedeck, is a buggy piece of shit, which has never
managed a single flight I have done without at least partially
crashing. The IOS version, just out now, is atrociously buggy. I know
a few people who are trying to make it work.

So who wrote that press release is "slightly" ahead of time.......
like a few years ahead.

Anyway, Flitedeck is primarily a moving map GPS product. The approach
plate display product is Jeppview. A transport jet pilot doesn't need
a moving map GPS; they have their whole instrument panel for that.

>Like other airlines, United is keen to show that it's both helping the
>pilots as well as pushing its green credentials. The combined savings on
>manuals and charts should eliminate about 38 pounds of weight from a
>typical flight bag. It may save as much as 326,000 gallons of fuel every
>year and theoretically spare 1,900 trees' worth of paper over the same
>space of time.

No big jet pilot carries 38lbs in his flight bag. About 1/10 of that,
even for a transatlantic flight.

>United isn't the first start moving in the paperless direction and was
>preceded by Alaska Airlines among majors getting manuals. FAA testing,
>however, has prevented most carriers from going the same route for charts
>until now.
>
>Apple so far has almost complete control of tablets' use in the air. With
>the exception of American Airlines' Galaxy Tabs in the passenger section,
>the iPad has been the predominant choice both for pilots and for actual
>customers. Both its advantage as first on the market as well as its wider
>app catalog have been considered crucial where rivals have only been an
>option for the past few months and don't have the equivalent in apps.

The only app which can display Jeppesen approach charts (the only ones
used at that level) is Jeppesen, and its software is basically crap.
They are very successful because of their database of the charts, and
the charts are fine if printed to paper, or to a PDF.

I think that press release is a load of bollocks, done for PR
purposes.

Todd Allcock

At 23 Aug 2011 22:26:27 +0100 nobody@nowhere.com wrote:
>
> Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org> wrote
>
>
><http://www.electronista.com/articles....pilot.manuals
..ch
> >arts.for.ipads/>
> >
> >updated 12:50 pm EDT, Tue August 23, 2011
> >United swaps pilot manuals, charts for iPads
> >
> >United Airlines and its soon-to-be-joined partner Continental staked
out a
> >first for flight by making itself the first major carrier in the US to
> >completely drop paper among its 11,000 pilots by using the iPad. Along
with
> >shedding paper flight manuals, it's now the first of its size to
replace
> >its charts with the Apple tablet as well.
>
> They must have backups though. No way could a single electronic device
> replace printed approach charts etc.
>
> >Each iPad will carry Jeppesen
> >Mobile FliteDeck (free, App Store) to provide worldwide maps in context.

>
> Mobile Flitedeck is a piece of shit. Actually its Windows predecessor,
> also called Flitedeck, is a buggy piece of shit, which has never
> managed a single flight I have done without at least partially
> crashing. The IOS version, just out now, is atrociously buggy. I know
> a few people who are trying to make it work.
>
> So who wrote that press release is "slightly" ahead of time.......
> like a few years ahead.
>
> Anyway, Flitedeck is primarily a moving map GPS product. The approach
> plate display product is Jeppview. A transport jet pilot doesn't need
> a moving map GPS; they have their whole instrument panel for that.
>
> >Like other airlines, United is keen to show that it's both helping the
> >pilots as well as pushing its green credentials. The combined savings
on
> >manuals and charts should eliminate about 38 pounds of weight from a
> >typical flight bag. It may save as much as 326,000 gallons of fuel
every
> >year and theoretically spare 1,900 trees' worth of paper over the same
> >space of time.
>
> No big jet pilot carries 38lbs in his flight bag. About 1/10 of that,
> even for a transatlantic flight.
>
> >United isn't the first start moving in the paperless direction and was
> >preceded by Alaska Airlines among majors getting manuals. FAA testing,
> >however, has prevented most carriers from going the same route for
charts
> >until now.
> >
> >Apple so far has almost complete control of tablets' use in the air.
With
> >the exception of American Airlines' Galaxy Tabs in the passenger
section,
> >the iPad has been the predominant choice both for pilots and for
actual
> >customers. Both its advantage as first on the market as well as its
wider
> >app catalog have been considered crucial where rivals have only been
an
> >option for the past few months and don't have the equivalent in apps.
>
> The only app which can display Jeppesen approach charts (the only ones
> used at that level) is Jeppesen, and its software is basically crap.
> They are very successful because of their database of the charts, and
> the charts are fine if printed to paper, or to a PDF.
>
> I think that press release is a load of bollocks, done for PR
> purposes.


It is possible, of course, that United either created (commissioned)
custom software, or simply put the "38 lbs." of documents on the iPad
in .pdf format.