Ipad mini for foreflight

[Jay Urish]

Both my uncle and I run the Mini 4 wifi/cell with 128Gb in 44T. Besides the occasional heat related crash in the summer, they are pretty reliable. The run on aircraft power when we are in flight.

 

[murphey]

@Hang 4 so I missed it!

I recently joined a club that has a nice (for me) panel. 2 G5s, GTN650 waas (are all 650s waas?) and gtx-345 xpdr with ADS B in/out.

Somewhere in this magic I can blue tooth an iPad into the panel and share flight plan information and get traffic and wx out to an iPad.

I just returned to flying in November (21) from not flying since 2008. I'm waaaaaaay behind technologically and actually have been using paper charts, knee pad and the 650 screen.

I have read here, and heard from others, I need cellular for the GPS and the largest memory. In the iPad 6 that puts me at $899 I think.

I was going to hold off until the new year / see how bonus and year-end employment shakes out, but I fly in pretty congested space under the 1900 foot layer of ORDs Bravo.

Maybe I don't need the memory and gps in the iPad . . .

I've got the 6 with 64GB & cell (only for GPS backup) and it's just fine. Half the US loaded (VFR and IFR) in ForeFlight & WingX, lots of FAA docs, 58 apps in all and still have 15 GB left over.

 

[Gary Ward]

I am still using a 4 since it was new in 2015. I use it plugged in the plane so don't worry about the battery much. It is mostly used for the plane and flight planning. It has FF, garmin pilot and a couple other apps and it is using 46gb out of 64gb. It is not cellar and gets traffic and weather from the GTX345 in the panel. Seems to work fine and I haven't noticed any slow down. I have used it for better than 1200hrs of flying. It hot spots off my I phone when not in the plane

I have a second 4 with 128gb storage, it's the backup. Have never needed it as a back up. I keep it updated.
I agree with most others, start out with sometime new like I did in 2015. Unless you are going to store a lot it seems 64gb is enough if that can save you some money. And yes get cellar. If you fly the whole country than you need 128gb.

 

[WDD]

I've had good luck with Gazelle buying used.

 

[Mongoose Aviator]

I carry a USB 12v adaptor and a USB battery pack. But one of the rentals I used to fly did not have a 12V adaptor available. Also, when its really hot, charging the iPad increases the chance of it overheating.

100% Agreed. If your iPad starts to overheat during flight, the first step should be to unplug the charging cable from the iPad.

Although this may be obvious for some, I suspect that for others this is not a known fact.

 

[Llk]

A lot of you lads aren’t para kid enough

If I’m going to power an iPad or another device, the device is connected to a battery brick (mophie, others) and the brick is connected to power.

I usually have more than one loaded / charged brick with me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Craig Stuart]

I'm currently using a mini 6 with cellular and 256GB, very happy with it. I also recommend going with the newest technology.

 

[RyanB]

Part of me wishes I had bought the full sized iPad, but the Mini 6 does the job for a flying tablet very well. I just wish they had a broader spectrum of keyboard cases for it.

 

[Mongoose Aviator]

I bought a full size 12.9" iPad and use it when flying. I got the model with the cellular option such that it also has the GPS hardware but I never activated the tablet onto a cellular plan. I either use the FBO WiFi or I hotspot from my phone if needed.
The full size iPad is great at the FBO or the house for flight planning. Inside the aircraft, realistically, it is just too big. Way too big to mount anywhere so I have a leg strap for the iPad and strap it to my leg. Which means when I use it, I am now looking down which is not ideal so I try to minimize how much "heads down" flying I am doing.

Ideal situation is a full size iPad for flight planning and a mini iPad for in the aircraft that can be mounted. I just have not reached the point yet where I really want to have to deal with two iPads so I lug this big thing around. For now. I did get a pretty heavy duty case for the iPad as I figured with all the moving around it was going to be doing, the likelyhood of me dropping it at some point was pretty high. Which means the big iPad ends up being even bigger and bulkier with the case on it.

 

[Doug Reid]

To each his own...I have used a 9.7 ipad pro in my two airplanes for years mounted on the yoke. The mount in my Bonanza is actually on the arm of the yoke close to the middle. If I tilt it a bit, my passenger can see it as well. The larger screen has never caused me any problems, but I can see why the mini would be a good choice for other folks.

 

[Pinecone]

I have both a full size iPad (Gen 9) and Mini (Gen 6) for flying.

I fly CAP C-182 and use the full sized there and for use outside the airplane. The Mini works better in my Mooney. Slightly smaller yoke and also the yoke is much closer.

Both are cellular models, so have built in GPS. But I don't have a SIM card in both.

 

[WDD]

Part of me wishes I had bought the full sized iPad, but the Mini 6 does the job for a flying tablet very well. I just wish they had a broader spectrum of keyboard cases for it.

Today's full size I Pad is about the size of the the left side of the windshield LOL. I'm still using my I Pad full size "Pro" from 7 years ago; I think it's 9.7 inches. Almost too large, but still works nicely. The new Mini is almost as large as my old Pro.

 

[Pinecone]

My Mini 6 is about the same size as my old Mini 2. The screen is larger (less border), but it will actually fit into the Mini 2 cradle