Pilots Get The FAA's Nod To Switch To iPads

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We’ve heard a little about this previously, with pilots looking to throw over their flight bags for iPads. But government regulations got between the pilots and their wishes to advance forward in the technological stakes. And now, the FAA has signed off on the necessary changes that will allow pilots to dump their bulky cargo in exchange for a little dose of the 21st century.

A pilot’s flight bag–a bag containing charts, flight manuals, log books and the like–is a package that can easily weigh 40 pounds or more, so it’s not surprising the pilots in question were interested in dropping some of that tonnage both from their backs and from their flights. And considering that the iPad can put manuals and charts and log books and the like into easy to use document format yet keep it all in that same ultra-light package, it’s not hard to see why such a move wouldn’t be welcome. Some have even suggested it would provide health care cost savings as pilots no longer need to tote heaps of paper weighing a significant percentage of their own body weight.

And it wasn’t just weight considerations that had the pilots looking to make the swap, either–speed considerations came into play. When you’ve got 40 pounds of paper to sift through, finding the one particular item you need in one particular manual or one particular log book can be a decided pain. Worse, it can cost lives; in an emergency, you need information in rapid fashion, and that’s just what the iPad offers over the traditional flight manual.

It sounds like a smart idea to me, though it may be a worthwhile idea to keep a hard copy backup in the cabin itself for emergencies. We all know from experience that electronic devices–even the iPad–aren’t a hundred percent reliable, and so it’s always a good idea to back them up.

But what do you guys think here? We have any pilots in the readership that like the switch? Or do you think it’s a terrible idea that will result in pilots playing Angry Birds while their planes crash like one? No matter how you feel about it, we want to hear from you, so hit the comments section and tell us what you think!