iPro Navigator Minor Annoyance

mjburian

mjburian

Cleared for Takeoff
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
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Location
Milwaukee, WI
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Display name:
Marty
I fly with my iPad attached to the yoke with the iPro Navigator and really like the setup. Having the iPad yoke mounted, with a clipboard attached and the ability to flip up the clipboard and use it as a sunshade for the iPad is an almost perfect solution for the flying I do. However, there's a minor annoyance that I've been trying to work around and I'm wondering if any of you have a better solution than I've found.

When you flip up the clipboard, it slides back and out of the way via two metal pegs (part of the main body) sliding inside of plastic tracks (part of the clipboard). If you push the clipboard all the way back, the pegs reach the end of the track and the clipboard falls off (usually hitting my legs on the way down and heading towards my feet and the rudder pedals). I'd like to find a semi-permanent solution to close off the end of the tracks and, thus far, haven't come up with anything all that great. (The solution should be semi-permanent because the "falling off" motion is also how you detach the clipboard, should you decide you don't want/need it in a particular circumstance.)

So far, the best solution I've found is to fold up some paper and shove it in the track. With the paper just slightly thicker than the space in the track I can squeeze it in there and have the pressure hold it in place. But, should I want/need to remove it, it's easily slid out of the track and original range of motion is restored in order to pull the clipboard off of the assembly.

This may be one of those "You'd have to see it to understand" but I'm not really sure how to show it. So hopefully someone else here owns the mount and has already solved this annoyance. If not, it's back to shoving paper into the tracks, I guess.
 
Marty, you could easily put a dot of epoxy at the end of the open rails, but note that they are open for a safety reason. The clipboard will slide off the back in case it takes a hit from the front. If you smack downward, it will also snap out of the rails, again by design for safety. Both are break-away functions.

One other point after reading our post. When you rotate the clipboard up on the pins, make sure that the clipboard rails slide around the semicircular plastic "cookies". These provide the friction and stability for the clipboard when it's in the up position. The steel pins are only part of the operating parts.
 
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mjburian said:
Yes, though there may not be a good picture of the tracks on the underside of the clipboard.
Click to expand...

The third set of photos / right-hand image (as I'm looking at it on my phone) seems to show the tracks the best. Just as a (admittedly crude) workaround, how about a piece of square stock (wood, plastic, or metal) just thick enough to block the ends of the tracks ... something like 1/2" square by 8?" long, held in place by a stout rubber band around width of the clipboard? It would prevent the arms from exiting the clipboard tracks in normal use, but would give way if struck or pressed with higher force.
 
That's similar to the paper solution I'm using now. It blocks the tracks, but can be easily removed when needed. I was just looking for something a little more... elegant?
 
Attach one of these paper clamps on the end of a rail. Easy to clip on and easy to remove but should block the clipboard rail enough to prevent clipboard from sliding off. You can find these clips in several sizes. I would use the smallest size that works for you.
 

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MickYoumans said:
Attach one of these paper clamps on the end of a rail. Easy to clip on and easy to remove but should block the clipboard rail enough to prevent clipboard from sliding off. You can find these clips in several sizes. I would use the smallest size that works for you.
Click to expand...


That was my initial solution! The only problem I had with that is the metal clamps hit the iPad screen when the clipboard is folded down (metal against glass screen, clipboard doesn't lay flat). I think the solution needs to live inside of the tracks to avoid this, so that's how/why I settled on the folded paper.

Keep the ideas coming, though, as I'm guessing you guys will come up with something better than I have.
 
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If I wasn't so lazy, I'd design a plastic clip that'd fit well and hold things in place and have it 3D printed.
 
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