Pros & Cons of flying with iPad: iPad eases pilot job with more distractions.

Flying with an iPad as a commercial pilot can ease many tasks during a flight.

iPad is a small investment for pilots if they already work as a commercial pilot.

Before you purchase an iPad, knowing the pros and cons of the iPad from this article will help you.

I shared a bit from my experience using the iPad in the cockpit. I learned:

• The benefits I have from using an iPad in the cockpit;
• Likewise, what are the disadvantages of focusing too much on the iPad?

I want to explain the pros of using an iPad on board.

What are the pros of flying with iPads?

iPad is a tool many airliners recommend for pilots to use in the cockpit.

iPad can store numerous information and display them within seconds. Hence an iPad increases the efficiency of a pilot.

Merely using an iPad and installing the Foreflight app on your iPad will change your flying experience.

In the past, pilots had to carry a pile of paper and several books every time they went on a flight.

A commercial pilot traveling in controlled airspace has to carry the following:

• Aeronautical information manual;
• Instrument Approach charts;
• Enroute charts;
• Standard instrument departure charts;
• Standard arrival charts;

Pilots carry all this information in the form of books or paper bindings.

But fortunately, today, commercial pilots can carry all those papers in PDF files or app versions on their iPad.

Can you imagine how obvious things have become for pilots?

Just one tool that is the size of a book and as slim as a cellphone can replace all those heavy paper books.

Long gone are when commercial pilots had to carry so many books in their flight bags.

You can use an iPad for flight planning and calculations.

Pilots can do all their flight planning and correlated calculations on their iPad. In the past, pilots had to use an E6B flight computer to do all those tasks and plan a flight using the following:

• A map;
• A plotter;
• A navigation log.

Ipad has replaced all the manual calculation jobs and the decade-old techniques for creating a flight plan.

A pilot can input the information on their iPad or specific apps to get the results in seconds.

Commercial pilots today save time and have much more accurate information.

RELATED: Best iPad for Pilots to conduct flights with ease.

iPads enhance the situational awareness of pilots.

By now, you already know about the use of portable ADS-B devices. I will give you a quick idea of the tool here if you don’t know.

ADS-B device can receive information on the weather en route and the other traffic in the same airspace.

To display all this information, you need an iPad. Flying with a cellular iPad and a portable ADS-B device can develop a pilot’s situational awareness.

Do you want to know how?

Installing the Foreflight app on your cellular iPad will allow you to see your current location, and having a flight plan will show your flight path ahead.

• Linking the iPad with the portable ADS-B device will allow the pilot to see the weather ahead;
• As well as view the position of all other aircraft relative to your plane in the airspace.

You will see the other airplanes’ positions and airplane identification with their altitude.

Thus flying with the iPad, you will be aware of your surroundings and conduct a safer flight.

• A portable ADS-B will enable the pilot to receive METAR, TAF, and wind reports aloft through their iPad’s Foreflight app.

A pilot doesn’t have to face uncertain weather conditions as they can forecast using the iPad and make decisions well ahead.

RELATED: What is ADS-B in aviation?

Zooming maps on the iPad can be helpful too.

It may not sound a lot to you, but zooming in on your exact position can be conducive. Zooming in on printed maps is impossible, and we must rely on what we see precisely on the map.

On the other hand, commercial pilots zoom in on the map on their iPad to figure out their next checkpoint and where they are relative to the checkpoint currently.

Especially during VFR flights, zooming in on your current location can be handy.

RELATED: Do student pilots need an iPad?

Numerous apps in iStore.

I only mentioned the Foreflight app in this article. Nevertheless, there are hundreds of useful apps for pilots in the store.

Some apps are inexpensive and can do incredible tasks for a commercial pilot.

But I suggest you don’t install all of them on your iPad because you will only distract yourself with that.

Install five useful apps you think are essential for you, and trust me, your flying experience will become much more enjoyable.

RELATED: Best Apps for pilots.

Available accessories for iPads.

There are tons of accessories available for iPads. You can order different accessories to suit your needs for flying with an iPad.

As a pilot, you may want to order a kneeboard for your iPad or an iPad mount to stick your iPad on the yoke.

You can choose from various options to buy from online and offline stores.

Another essential thing to buy is tempered glass for your iPad screen, which is also widely available.

What are the cons of the iPad?

The price of an iPad is not higher than standard android tablets. Yet I suggest pilots buy the iPad.

There are numerous paid and free apps available for iPad in the store.

On the contrary, though android tablets are a cheaper alternative, the android play store doesn’t have many useful apps dedicated to commercial pilots like iStore.

iPads can be very distracting.

I mentioned earlier that iPads could be very distracting. Especially with thousands of apps to choose from, one can get easily distracted and focus on installing new apps.

Pilots must spend time familiarizing themselves with only a few apps so that they can use them during the flight efficiently.

Having many apps installed on your iPad disorganizedly will waste your time while looking for one helpful app during a flight.

Spending time mastering one app is essential rather than playing with ten new apps daily. Having fewer Apps saved in an organized manner can aid in flying with the iPad massively.

Limited space on the iPad.

Ipads don’t have an external memory card slot, unlike android devices. So once you run out of space, you must delete a few pictures and videos to clean up areas.

You might need extra space on your device to accommodate a few other charts.

Thus I always suggest everyone buy an iPad of at least 128 GB. You will not have trouble deleting some files to accommodate more essential data.

RELATED: Best iPad for pilots.

Batteries run out quickly.

From my experience, I have noticed batteries on iPads run out more quicker than on android devices.

You don’t want your iPad to turn off in the middle of a flight.

Imagine you are heading towards a thunderstorm, and your iPad has stopped working.

What can be worse than that?

I know pilots always flew without iPads in the past. But once a pilot gets used to flying with an iPad, it becomes quite troublesome for a commercial pilot to operate without one.

Think of it like this:

• You have an iPad that can help you learn about the weather ahead, but it turns off when you realize the weather ahead will worsen.

And with your iPad not working, you will not know which direction to fly now unless you have a GPS in your airplane.

As a commercial pilot, suppose your aircraft has a Garmin GPS, but your GPS will not show the other traffic in the airspace.

To view other traffic in low visibility airspace is critical to avoid collision courses, that you can’t do with a dead battery in your iPad.

Extra costs with buying iPads.

Only buying an iPad will not work wonders for you on flights. There are other extra expenses a commercial pilot needs to count for the iPad to work at its full potential.

If you buy a non-cellular iPad, your iPad will not have a GPS chip inside.

• Thus you have to buy an external GPS tracker.
• Next, you must subscribe to apps to aid you during your flight. Not all apps are free, efficient ones.
• Also, buying a portable ADS-B device is essential to display the traffic in the vicinity through your iPad apps.
• Lastly, you have to purchase tempered glass for your iPad;
• And a kneeboard to use your iPad comfortably while flying the aircraft.

RELATED: Gifts for Pilots.