pay as you go for Ipad mini

Morgan3820

Morgan3820

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New Bern, NC
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El Conquistador
1. I do not own a smart phone.
2. $15/mo for something that I will use infrequently is too much for me. I am a Tracphone fan. Pay for what you use, does not expire, although access does cost $100/yr.
3. I am thinking about getting a second ipad mini to be used only for foreflight.

Does anyone know of any data plans that are pay as you go that would work for filing flight plans and such? I can bring the ipad home for updates. I am thinking mainly of filing IFR via Foreflight.

Thanks!
 
Can't speak to specifics regarding data plans for tablets, but I've been pay as you go for cell phones for over 10 yrs now. Up to 4 in the family now as of Christmas. If you are close to a BestBuy, they have a whole aisle devoted to pay as you go from the various carriers. I suspect everyone has some version of a plan, and you can find something suitable there.
 
I checked Verizon and it was pay as you go but by data amount versus months, yet it would expire... So if you buy 10gb of data today, you had 60 or 90 days to use it.. then you'd have to add more to the SIM card after.
I did 60GB for $90 (plus $10 for a new sim and activation..) for a cross country trip.

AT&T was more expensive with the same limitations..

If you find something, let us know... Would be useful for sure to have a cheaper option like "$10 a month for 500mb" or "25GB that doesn't expire for 12 months for $100"
 
Morgan3820 said:
1. I do not own a smart phone.
2. $15/mo for something that I will use infrequently is too much for me. I am a Tracphone fan. Pay for what you use, does not expire, although access does cost $100/yr.
3. I am thinking about getting a second ipad mini to be used only for foreflight.

Does anyone know of any data plans that are pay as you go that would work for filing flight plans and such? I can bring the ipad home for updates. I am thinking mainly of filing IFR via Foreflight.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You don't need any plan at all if you have an iPad, since wifi is readily available and usually free. Even with cellular, you can turn the data subscription on and off as necessary. You may also want to check out T-mobile, which offers 250mb/month of data for free. That's a very small amount, but may be sufficient if you're an infrequent user.
 
Maybe rethink having a smartphone? Most smartphones today have wifi hotspot capabilities you could use to connect the iPad.
 
Brad Z said:
You don't need any plan at all if you have an iPad, since wifi is readily available and usually free. Even with cellular, you can turn the data subscription on and off as necessary. You may also want to check out T-mobile, which offers 250mb/month of data for free. That's a very small amount, but may be sufficient if you're an infrequent user.
Click to expand...

That does bring up another question. How much data is used when filing a flight plan? If somewhere around 50 mb, then 250 mb/mo would be plenty.
 
John221us said:
Maybe rethink having a smartphone? Most smartphones today have wifi hotspot capabilities you could use to connect the iPad.
Click to expand...

My wife and usual copilot has a smart phone (iphone). The hot spot is $15/mo., which I might use 6 times a year.
 
Morgan3820 said:
That does bring up another question. How much data is used when filing a flight plan? If somewhere around 50 mb, then 250 mb/mo would be plenty.
Click to expand...

It's WAY less than 50MB. Probably on the order of 100kB. Assuming no other data activity at the same time, like checking the weather or loading maps.
 
Morgan3820 said:
1. I do not own a smart phone.
2. $15/mo for something that I will use infrequently is too much for me. I am a Tracphone fan. Pay for what you use, does not expire, although access does cost $100/yr.
3. I am thinking about getting a second ipad mini to be used only for foreflight.

Does anyone know of any data plans that are pay as you go that would work for filing flight plans and such? I can bring the ipad home for updates. I am thinking mainly of filing IFR via Foreflight.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'll second the idea of using T-Mobile. I have the free 200 (or 250?) MB monthly plan from them and it's perfect for filing flight plans. I can always upgrade to 1GB or more (for a month) on the spot, with no contract or anything.

As far as the wifi suggestion goes, sure, wifi is common in some areas, but generally I've not found much free wifi at airports where you might need to file a flight plan or download weather info.
 
dukeblue219 said:
I'll second the idea of using T-Mobile. I have the free 200 (or 250?) MB monthly plan from them and it's perfect for filing flight plans. I can always upgrade to 1GB or more (for a month) on the spot, with no contract or anything.

As far as the wifi suggestion goes, sure, wifi is common in some areas, but generally I've not found much free wifi at airports where you might need to file a flight plan or download weather info.
Click to expand...

Wifi is common at home, where often flight planning takes place. Lots of airports have it, but it can be an annoyance having to ask for the password to make it work.
 
Morgan3820 said:
My wife and usual copilot has a smart phone (iphone). The hot spot is $15/mo., which I might use 6 times a year.
Click to expand...

FF allows installation on 2 devices. If all you care about is filing a flight plan about 6 times a year, put FF on your wife's phone and file from her phone. 0 extra cost.
 
Surprisingly, I just found that my $60.00 / month prepaid plan with AT&T includes the hotspot functionality on my BlackBerry Q10. In fact, it's about twice as fast as my business cable connection. I'd check your current plan and carrier. You may already have your solution.

Rich
 
My $25/mo ptel plan has that property as well. Filing flight plans is on the order of kilobytes and happens quickly, even over a 2G connection.
 
Morgan3820 said:
1. I do not own a smart phone.
2. $15/mo for something that I will use infrequently is too much for me. I am a Tracphone fan. Pay for what you use, does not expire, although access does cost $100/yr.
3. I am thinking about getting a second ipad mini to be used only for foreflight.

Does anyone know of any data plans that are pay as you go that would work for filing flight plans and such? I can bring the ipad home for updates. I am thinking mainly of filing IFR via Foreflight.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I use Verizon on the iPad, 50 bucks 6 gigs they don't roll over so last day if I have data left I update charts or plates. Pay as you go,and cancel any time. iPad mini be sure to get at least 32gb as foreflight would hit you hard on storage. No prob if you keep only few states. Cheapest plan starts at 20 bucks for 1 gig 2 gig 30
 
With the AT&T ipad you're free to leave the data off and turn it on in when you need it (and then cancel). It's essentially $15/mo for any month you use it (provided you remember to cut it off).

You can get by for a long time WIFI only. I rarely use the celldata side of my iPad.
 
AT&T has a 1GB for 90 days prepaid plan that's $25 that I use on my iPad Mini. I never renew it until I actually need it so it tends to just expire unused after 90 days since most of the places I end up have WiFi.
 
You are cheap......so am I.....


Screw the data plan and phone that **** in on your bad ass tracphone! Your making us cheap bast ads look bad, bro.
 
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