Which iPad in RV 14

Starting to plan the panel - exciting stuff!

I'm seeing regular use of the iPad, mostly with Foreflight..

Can others make comments about their iPad installation experiences?
- which model of iPad did you use (assuming in Right Panel)
* are some sizes too big?
- which supporting products have provided good satisfaction (mounts/power)
- do some models overheat more readily? (what cooling did you use?)

Thanks for your insights.

descro said:

Starting to plan the panel - exciting stuff!

I'm seeing regular use of the iPad, mostly with Foreflight..

Can others make comments about their iPad installation experiences?
- which model of iPad did you use (assuming in Right Panel)
* are some sizes too big?
- which supporting products have provided good satisfaction (mounts/power)
- do some models overheat more readily? (what cooling did you use?)

Thanks for your insights.

Click to expand...

Foreflight on an iPad is a wonderful flight planning tool. An iPad in the cockpit is little more than the third back up, and something to play with on a long cross country (along with providing the tunes to the blue tooth audio panel). Don?t waste panel space on a mounted iPad.

Not that I have any strong opinions on this...
Carl

We flew 8 hours cross country on two iPads that were as accurate as the $60k avionics stack. Put us bang on the Centre line of our final runway.

Knee pad.

We use an Apple I-Pad air tow 10", as a left knee pad. In the panel is a Garmin G3X touch 10". With those two you are very well informed at any given time.
Just what we use. Yours, R.E.A. III # 80888

Carl Froehlich said:

Don?t waste panel space on a mounted iPad.

Not that I have any strong opinions on this...
Carl

Click to expand...

While Carl has strong - and very good - opinions he shares in his many posts, on this one I would say the opposite, don't waste space, or $'s, on a second 10" display and ADAHRS. Get a G5 or equivalent for backup and put in an iPad on the right side. With the G5 you get the backup ADAHRS, AI, HSI etc and if you want, it's own four hour backup battery. The mounted iPad can function as a courtesy PFD for a right side pilot, lacking only engine instrumentation.

I was a little on the fence when I went this way, but 160 hours later I'm delighted with my setup. My iPad is easily removable in flight and on long flights I have it on my knee quite a bit of the time. Of course after the flight you get to take it home, or into the FBO with you to plan or alter your next leg or flight.

If you are a dedicated Foreflight user like me, the iPad in the airplane is far more valuable than the second big screen. I never create a flight plan on the Garmin units as it is so trivially easy in Foreflight by comparison. After the avionics boot up I load the flight plane from Foreflight to the panel.

I love my G3x touch but accessing weather on it is cumbersome in comparison to Foreflight.

Foreflight and an iPad deserve panel space. The same is true for Garmin Pilot.

You probably already know about iPad mini Cellular version vs WIFI. WIFI version does not have built in GPS. However if you have some other device (Stratus/Stratux/Bad Elf/etc), This can be sent to the iPad for WAAS GPS capability.

You can also check your primary device compatibility with iPad. I believe some will allow communication and transfer of flight plan info and more...