News: iPad Apps Help Cut Fatal Crashes of Private Planes to New Lows

They are attributing the lower accident rate to iPads?

Interesting. I haven't read any of the reports yet, but I presume that to do this they're seeing a big decline in accidents where GPS and moving maps would make a difference? Maybe some saves from synthetic vision? What's the mechanism that iPads are contributing to safety?
 
An 18 percent change based on two data points is not statistically significant. It's much too early to attribute a "decline" to anything because the decline may or may not exist.

And it's not the accident rate they are claiming. It's the fatal rate.
 
I agree - not enough data to substantiate the claim. But... what I recall is that weather is a significant contributor to fatal accidents. Perhaps the fact that it is now so much cheaper and more accessible for pilots to bring ADS-B driven weather data into the plane is helping to prevent the "continued flight into deteriorating conditions" accidents from happening?
 
Judging by the headline and subhead, it's the Apple, Inc. logo on the device that's most important.
 
I've used FF/iPad for a long time. But this is hooey, just slap-dash journalism, salted with the usual ignorance. . .
 
Didn't read the article but I would have to agree that by increasing situational awareness the iPad does indeed increase safety.
 
On a more serious note: Making it quicker and easier to obtain weather information before flight, as well as updates in flight, along with W&B made so quick and easy even the laziest pilot can do it, COULD be having an impact. I suspect this will take way more study to determine than this particular reporter invested in this article.
 
Real time weather information and better situational awareness...may be a stretch to say iPads are saving lives but the notion that they are contributing to safer flying is a reasonable conclusion.
 
Sat on a forum at Oshkosh with a panel of folks including FAA. This issue came up and although too early for firm conclusions, it was openly speculated that the increased situational awareness and weather offered by current electronics (the iPad was mentioned specifically) may be responsible for the improved stats.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
If you believe that I got a bridge to sell you
 
Man, I need to get an iPad. Living on borrowed time right now.
 
JoseCuervo said:
Do yo believe it has made things less safe?


Do you believe it has had an affect on Safety?
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Same chit, different format.

The dumb chits will still lawn dart, the smart ones will still know when to say no
 
What crap.
Playing with a tablet makes you safer?

Uh, like, probably no.
 
An iPad gives you more information in an easier-to-use format. Whether or not that makes you safer is up to you and how you use the information. At the end of the day, it is about judgement-- not something you can relegate to your iPad.

...And it's certainly not going to fix stall-spin accidents in the pattern, which seem to kill a lot of folks.
 
Isn't the highest fatal cause, still loss of control at low altitude? How is an iPad helping with that?

Better go grab an instructor and fly more before thinking an iPad will save your butt.
 
Shawn said:
Real time weather information and better situational awareness...may be a stretch to say iPads are saving lives but the notion that they are contributing to safer flying is a reasonable conclusion.
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I'd have to agree. I have an Attitude Indicator App on both my iPad and my Apple Phone. I may never have to use them, but it's like the fire extinguisher. Better to have it and never need it, than need it and not have it.
 
While iPads and moving map GPS devices are cool, I bet the reduction of accidents is more closely related to $5 avgas, airport security requirements, 150K planes costing 750K, etc......
 
Sluggo63 said:
Has anybody seen or used Xavion? Seems like a neat idea for single engine failure scenario at night/IMC.
http://xavion.com/app/full-description/

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Don't get me started on that crooked SOB. I paid $99 for that app, THEN he switched to an annual subscription after the fact.

I will add that the functionality is impressive, but the user interface is pretty bad...unless you're a WingX fan, then you don't care.
 
Sluggo63 said:
Has anybody seen or used Xavion? Seems like a neat idea for single engine failure scenario at night/IMC.
http://xavion.com/app/full-description/

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Seems like a lot of effort to find a wide runway, when you can land on pretty much any runway in a light single, including one of the thousands of uncharted strips.

At night, you need lights more than anything else, and in IMC, you might need some maneuvering room.

Seems like it's optimizing the wrong thing.

I spent two hours loitering near PXN VOR the other day. Of course I was looking for emergency landing spots along the way. Within 5 miles, there were two 3000+ foot dirt strips, one paved runway, and around a dozen straight roads, in mountainous terrain. All uncharted. Only one charted field near the edge of gliding range (and only because we were high).
 
Whether we care to admit it or not, tablets like the iPad and equivalent androids have have had a huge impact in flying over the last 5 years. Now even a 152 With the most basic panel can have (with the addition of somethings like a Stratus) geo referenced maps, approach plates, taxi diagrams, obstacle database, weather radar, synthetic vision, winds, METARS, TAFS, AHRS, etc, etc, etc. all of this used to be available only on the most expensive panel mounted avionics. There is no doubt that it has done wonders to increase the situational awareness for those with basic avionics. It may be difficult to precisely determine the impact it has had on safety, but I do believe the impact is real.
 
Perezhr said:
Whether we care to admit it or not, tablets like the iPad and equivalent androids have have had a huge impact in flying over the last 5 years. Now even a 152 With the most basic panel can have (with the addition of somethings like a Stratus) geo referenced maps, approach plates, taxi diagrams, obstacle database, weather radar, synthetic vision, winds, METARS, TAFS, AHRS, etc, etc, etc. all of this used to be available only on the most expensive panel mounted avionics. There is no doubt that it has done wonders to increase the situational awareness for those with basic avionics. It may be difficult to precisely determine the impact it has had on safety, but I do believe the impact is real.
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I have to agree with Perezhr. After taking a 20 year break from General Aviation I was amazed at Foreflight when I downloaded it on my iPad. The situational awareness alone is worth it's weight in gold. I wouldn't be naive enough to say it has made as large as impact as the article implies but it has made an impact. It's amazing after flying for a year & flying a lot of cross country flights I've yet needed to call a FSS.
 
Interesting debate ,when in doubt fly the airplane,although I do rely on foreflight and the stratus,for long cross countries.
 
For one thing the total GA flight hours for a given year is a number some statistician is pulling out of a hat. Nobody, outside of myself for instance, knows how many hours I logged last year. So the whole idea of a trend is on sketchy ground to begin with and to then put forth the notion that it's due to iPads is a real stretch of the imagination. I suppose that if you are going to publish a magazine you gotta write something, must be tough to fill those pages month after month.
 
saddletramp said:
I have to agree with Perezhr. After taking a 20 year break from General Aviation I was amazed at Foreflight when I downloaded it on my iPad. The situational awareness alone is worth it's weight in gold. I wouldn't be naive enough to say it has made as large as impact as the article implies but it has made an impact. It's amazing after flying for a year & flying a lot of cross country flights I've yet needed to call a FSS.
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Amen, brother.

The difference between flying now, and flying 25 years ago, is amazing. I've flown with a tablet and ADS-B since 2012, and it has changed everything about flying for the better.

As I mentioned to Mary, while we were preparing for our annual 1300 mile VFR cross country flight to OSH last month, we used to work harder to prepare for a $100 hamburger flight than we now do for a transcontinental flight. Think about all of the things we once did:

- Paper sectionals spread out all over the kitchen table

- Rulers ticking off landmarks that we might see from the air

- Calling Flight Service on the phone for weather (instead of just TFR info)

- Calling them from the sky, trying to visualize their attempts at verbally describing a weather system based on its position from unfamiliar VORs.

- Blindly selecting fuel stops based on nothing but position under your drawn line on the paper map.

- NO weather awareness once airborne.

- And if you flew off the edge of your sectional due to a weather diversion, you had nothing. Maybe a WAC chart, if you had one on board.

Now, between my EFIS in the panel, and the Samsung tablet running Garmin Pilot, I have more information at my fingertips than Air Force and airline pilots had until very recently. To call this anything but revolutionary does not do it justice. It certainly has had a positive impact on the ease and safety of our flying.
 
Silvaire said:
Nobody, outside of myself for instance, knows how many hours I logged last year.
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My insurance company asks every year at renewal how many total hours I have and how many in the last 12 months. They also ask for further breakdown. Day, night, VFR, IFR, single, twin, etc.

I'm currently filling out MedExpress for my third class. It also asked for data...not nearly as detailed though.
 
Silvaire said:
For one thing the total GA flight hours for a given year is a number some statistician is pulling out of a hat. Nobody, outside of myself for instance, knows how many hours I logged last year. So the whole idea of a trend is on sketchy ground to begin with and to then put forth the notion that it's due to iPads is a real stretch of the imagination. I suppose that if you are going to publish a magazine you gotta write something, must be tough to fill those pages month after month.
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That's like saying a poll can't be representative of the electorate because it only samples 1500 people. Of course it can with the right methods.

I'm sure the FAA has very good statistical methods for coming up with their numbers.

As to this thread, it seems most pilots are loath to ever entertain the idea that technology can save lives. I've personally found the a tablet has greatly increased my situational awareness and weather avoidance.
 
Did they take into account the morons who have crashed their planes while taking selfies? And the ones who were snapfacing when they plowed into the ground?

I would like to see their numbers, I know that phones and tablets sure the hell have made driving an almost daily exercise in collision avoidance, I can't see how they make a pilot any better considering that by the time they drive themselves to the airport they are stressed out from dodging idiots texting behind the wheel.
 
Bonchie said:
That's like saying a poll can't be representative of the electorate because it only samples 1500 people. Of course it can with the right methods.

I'm sure the FAA has very good statistical methods for coming up with their numbers.

As to this thread, it seems most pilots are loath to ever entertain the idea that technology can save lives. I've personally found the a tablet has greatly increased my situational awareness and weather avoidance.
Click to expand...
Why would you be sure the FAA has very good statistical methods? The organization is a collection of fiefdoms, with lousy internal communications, inconsistent application of policy across regions, and a penchant for making the facts fit their budget ambitions. Plenty of very good individuals, even some excellent islands of competency, but as a whole, they couldn't find their ass with both hands, given a roadmap and seeing eye dog. . .
 
Sundancer said:
Why would you be sure the FAA has very good statistical methods? The organization is a collection of fiefdoms, with lousy internal communications, inconsistent application of policy across regions, and a penchant for making the facts fit their budget ambitions. Plenty of very good individuals, even some excellent islands of competency, but as a whole, they couldn't find their ass with both hands, given a roadmap and seeing eye dog. . .
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And the scary part is: They're better than most other bureaucracies in government. :)
 
Consider the source. I rank bloomberg right up there with the national inquirer and the onion when it comes to "reporting"

Hell I'm surprised they didn't attribute the decline in fatalities to Hillary Clinton.
 
I bet my insurance company asks me if I fly with an iPad next year...

Not. :)
 
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