MAKG1
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2012
- Messages
- 13,411
- Location
- California central coast
- Display Name
Display name:
MAKG
For the record, I do truly appreciate your point of view because I do like thinking about these things. I'm a Network Engineer by trade so redundancy is my world and I'm always adding more to my tool belt (hopefully most for the better).
The battery charge scenario did happen a couple weeks ago on a XC with my instructor. I "thought" I charged my iPad but didn't and started a 3.5 hour flight at 30% and knew I wouldn't make it. Fortunately I had my 6000mah mophie battery pack and just plugged it in. I also had my 2.4A cigarette lighter charger as tertiary. (and the phone)
Honestly a sectional for my area would easily fit in my flight bag or the back of a seat in the plane so I'm sure I'll ultimately pick one up. I have really studied the VFR charts in general so I'm very comfortable reading them.
Yeah, you'll be fine.
I'd just rather spare you the unpleasantness of learning some of this stuff the hard way.
Your airplane is probably in better shape, but I lost my previous tablet due to a bad 12V socket in a rental airplane. I plugged it in and it died instantly and permanently. In retrospect, I suspect the alternator's rectifier was blown (one of the three diodes will fail to a dead short, leading to a truncated sinusoidal voltage rather than DC -- and will still charge the battery, albeit slowly), and I probably shouldn't have flown the airplane for that reason. But it passed run-up and I flew it on paper, across Los Angeles, successfully. As a result of this, I do not plug the tablet into ship's power, but instead rely on a spare battery. iPads do last a while if kept charged, especially if used intermittently. But it's important to understand that the spare batteries slow the discharge rate. They do not charge the device if it is use.