I'm just curious how we all get to decide which IFCs we should comply with and which ones are OK to ignore. Hell, if this is going to open up some previously prohibited possibilities for me in the jet, maybe we could extend your methodology to sections of my community's SOP or even NATOPS.
Perhaps I've judged you prematurely, and for that, I appologize.
Because you don't always know all the facts, even though you pontificate as though you do.
1. IFCs are generally generated in response to a company who has developed something and thinks that NAVAIR might be able to use it. NAVAIR grants it an interim IFC to test at one the HX/VX squadrons. The other way an IFC is generated is via fleet demand. How do you get fleet demand without an IFC? I don't know - that's a chicken/egg argument. We were flying with non-IFC vests in Iraq, and shortly after I returned an interim IFC was issued. How/why would they issue it? Because of fleet demand.
2. Does the Garmin GPS Map 696 have an IFC? Nope, only an interim - and only for OT squadrons. Yet we were ISSUED them by NAVAIR. Odd... Here's a little bit of info - you don't have to be an HX/VX squadron to do OT.
3. When we queried NAVAIR about why our GPS Map 696 were no longer being updated? Their response - because we're going to be getting iPads.
4. When further queried, NAVAIR said that fleet demand has signaled an expansion to the currently limited IFC. Shortly thereafter NGA released the iOS software on the CDs.
5. Our PMA has told us that funds are limiting the amount of iPads that can be purchased, but that we can use our personal iPads in the cockpit as a means of OT - to further increased the demand signal from the fleet for iPads as replacements to paper charts.
6. Further, our PMA told us that squadrons can use 7F funds to purchase multiple iPads for the squadron, but maintenance/etc... is up to the squadron to figure out (since it involves a network connection that NMCI won't allow at the present time).
I also asked the PMA/NAVAIR rep about the limited IFC - and their response was that if something isn't strictly prohibited in NATOPS/OPNAV/SOPs then we are allowed to use it in the cockpit - until we're told otherwise. The guy even said "how do you think we get a fleet demand IFC". I asked him about the vests and his response was "they weren't prohibited, but we did briefly to give us time to test them for fire retardance, etc, then you saw the IFC granted."
So, that, in a nutshell is why I fly with a iPad in the cockpit knowing full well that I'm "playing with fire".