Do you use an iPad in the cockpit? Would you?

[scoolbubba]

That's exciting. I wonder if it's universal.

It's not.

To avoid base Ops fuckery whenever I'm trying to GTFO of dodge on cross countries (aka the hardest part of cross countries), I file IFR from another field and pick it up in flight.

I just keep on climbing VFR; benefit is the stud seeing there's more than one way to skin a cat and I don't have to wait for the morons to tell me my clearance is fucked once my motor is already turning.

 

[Hotdogs]

It's not.

To avoid base Ops fuckery whenever I'm trying to GTFO of dodge on cross countries (aka the hardest part of cross countries), I file IFR from another field and pick it up in flight.

I just keep on climbing VFR; benefit is the stud seeing there's more than one way to skin a cat and I don't have to wait for the morons to tell me my clearance is fucked once my motor is already turning.

ha... So there I was spinning at 100% with a take off call in to tower for a present position to get the hell out of dodge when I get told to shut down and file a hand written VFR DD175 at some shit stick USAF airfield in the middle of nowhere. No IFR pick up enroute and apparently VFR departures at some USAF airfields are heavily frowned upon. They also vectored me out like an A-10 vice letting me boom around underneath everything at 300ft.

I will never go to an exclusive USAF airbase for a fuel hit on a cross country again.

 

[insanebikerboy]

But can you do that out of a Navy field? If so, that's a new thing and pretty fantastic. That was always the issue with DUATS (and 3710 even mentioned it as they slowly tried to kill that capability). You could plan, get preferred routing, and even print a jet log, all in DUATS, but you had to still deal with Base Ops to file.

Between ADSB and industry embracing programs like FF, I could see it being possible that a Navy tower may have been updated to interface with the civilian filing system, but I'm skeptical.

Since the DD-175 is no longer a thing, filing an 1801 via Foreflight “should” work.

ha... So there I was spinning at 100% with a take off call in to tower for a present position to get the hell out of dodge when I get told to shut down and file a hand written VFR DD175 at some shit stick USAF airfield in the middle of nowhere. No IFR pick up enroute and apparently VFR departures at some USAF airfields are heavily frowned upon. They also vectored me out like an A-10 vice letting me boom around underneath everything at 300ft.

I will never go to an exclusive USAF airbase for a fuel hit on a cross country again.

To the AF’s credit, they’ve rewritten some pubs to explicitly allow departing VFR. Talking to the older dudes, it was virtually unheard of to depart VFR back in the day.

It’s also community dependent with comfort departing VFR, but at least big AF isn’t impeding it anymore.

 

[RobLyman]

Army airfields are almost as bad. You need a hand written VFR flight plan to get out. At Hunter AAF luckily there is a "strip" flight plan mechanism for MTFs. Although they want almost as much information as a VFR plan. The rework facility pilots told me "Just give them the numbers on ground." I thought, how hard can that be. After pissing off the rest of the airfield by having ground ask me each question over the radio, I learned what "the numbers" meant. MTFs at an airfield that isn't your own can be a pain in the A$$.

What? I have to call approach control for a block, even though I am outside the class C?

But, to stay on topic, having an iPAD does help in finding things like helo pads at an airfield. The option in Foreflight to have your position displayed on the approach plates and airport diagram are very nice.

 

[ChuckMK23]

It isn't, unfortunately. Many still bizarrely require a wet signature scanned and emailed.

This. Maxwell AFB makes you file a paper 1801 with a wet "initials" from wx briefer - I suspect it has more to do with justifying the GS civ roles there than anything. Here at WPAFB, I can file directly with FAA and my clearance is ready to go moments later.

I see transient T-38's with Stratus or Sentry units - so clearly these things are being embraced. What about CNATRA T-6's? Will anyone get their panties in a bunch if a TW-5 T-6 goes XC with a Stratus unit and iPad/Foreflight?

In my side gig as an active CFI/II, the "own ship" approach plate view in FF makes teaching a new instrument student a challenge - my 50 something dentist student with his $600K SR-22 thinks its just "follow the bold dark line" (and the magenta line on the PFD and MFD) doesn't appreciate the subtleties of the procedure or the underlying complexity of the procedure that will keep him from flying his shiny new hyper automated airplane into the ground.

 

[RandomGoat1248]

I see transient T-38's with Stratus or Sentry units - so clearly these things are being embraced. What about CNATRA T-6's? Will anyone get their panties in a bunch if a TW-5 T-6 goes XC with a Stratus unit and iPad/Foreflight?

Even close to two years ago when I was in Primary a bunch of the IPs flew with Stratus units to get the weather. More times then you would think those things helped us avoid getting caught out by pop-up thunderstorms.

 

[scoolbubba]

This. Maxwell AFB makes you file a paper 1801 with a wet "initials" from wx briefer - I suspect it has more to do with justifying the GS civ roles there than anything. Here at WPAFB, I can file directly with FAA and my clearance is ready to go moments later.

I see transient T-38's with Stratus or Sentry units - so clearly these things are being embraced. What about CNATRA T-6's? Will anyone get their panties in a bunch if a TW-5 T-6 goes XC with a Stratus unit and iPad/Foreflight?

In my side gig as an active CFI/II, the "own ship" approach plate view in FF makes teaching a new instrument student a challenge - my 50 something dentist student with his $600K SR-22 thinks its just "follow the bold dark line" (and the magenta line on the PFD and MFD) doesn't appreciate the subtleties of the procedure or the underlying complexity of the procedure that will keep him from flying his shiny new hyper automated airplane into the ground.

CNATRA has sentries and stratii one can check out. They are great. I have my own 2S but it needs sent back to appareo because the charge port isn't working anymore. Known defect with them.

foreflight, ipads etc are all perfectly legal in CNATRA land. They have been for a long time as personal knee boards. The commands have just finally embraced saving millions of dollars in the switch away from paper pubs to issuing iPads with ForeFlight accounts attached to them.

 

[Gatordev]

CNATRA has sentries and stratii one can check out. They are great. I have my own 2S but it needs sent back to appareo because the charge port isn't working anymore. Known defect with them.

Now that I've actually been able to read the thing... I believe the IFC even states the use of radios on the device is now authorized, as long as a cellular voice call isn't used. Because that would be practical in flight.

 

[wink]

...as long as a cellular voice call isn't used. Because that would be practical in flight.

My understanding is that the FCC has the real problem with airborne cellular. Clobbers too any cells at once. No amount of aircraft shielding or data proving no internal aircraft interference will solve that one.

 

[Gatordev]

My understanding is that the FCC has the real problem with airborne cellular. Clobbers too any cells at once. No amount of aircraft shielding or data proving no internal aircraft interference will solve that one.

I was being sarcastic. I'm not sure how it would be helpful to try and make a cellular call on an iPad while flying. I don't even know of a way of doing that that isn't using your cell phone as the relay. That's all I was getting at.

 

[taxi1]

"Siri, how do I get to my crash site?"

 

[Pags]

My understanding is that the FCC has the real problem with airborne cellular. Clobbers too any cells at once. No amount of aircraft shielding or data proving no internal aircraft interference will solve that one.

I'd also imagine there are some concerns with antenna co-site interference due to the fact that the cell antenna is moving around the tube as opposed to static like onboard wifi. I'm sure someone could figure it out but its probably not worth the cost to do it.

 

[kmac]

Out of curiosity, why do you guys emphasize being able to update them? Aside from downloading weather, the pubs themselves aren’t being updated more frequently than the 28-day AIRAC cycle. Or are you referring to the software/app?

 

[Brett327]

Out of curiosity, why do you guys emphasize being able to update them? Aside from downloading weather, the pubs themselves aren’t being updated more frequently than the 28-day AIRAC cycle. Or are you referring to the software/app?

Probably because in most instances, updating them requires Wi-Fi, which isn't available in most Navy work environments, so it becomes a big PITA.

 

[Jim123]

Probably because in most instances, updating them requires Wi-Fi, which isn't available in most Navy work environments, so it becomes a big PITA.

Yep. For airlines and commercial flying, flight crews pass through a lot of places with good wifi all the time- the random hotel each night, swing by the crew lounge if the airport is a company base, FBO if your operation works out of that side of the airport, and last but not least hitting the update button when you're at home before you head out the door to work.

The updates on the popular Jeppesen app run anywhere from about 10-100mB and only takes a few minutes on good wifi (like hit a couple buttons on the iPad and it's done while your'e still taking a shower). Sometimes there's a little update once a week but the big updates are every two weeks. That's a little different than the "pubs Christmas" routine at the squadron of a hundred pounds of paper charts arriving every 28 days.

Makes me wonder if naval air adopted these how much wifi squatting we'd see at the on-base Starbucks and Subway- whether guys sitting in the parking lot or carrying their company iPad inside while they buy a couple macadamia nut cookies or a cup of coffee.