What do you do when you're iPad battery goes dead

What do you do when your iPad battery dies

  • Pull the red handle (Cirrus Only)

    Votes: 7 10.9%

  • Pray and/or die

    Votes: 5 7.8%

  • Pull out the paper chart

    Votes: 24 37.5%

  • Declare an emergency

    Votes: 8 12.5%

  • What's an iPad

    Votes: 20 31.3%
  • Total voters
    64
R

Ravioli

Ejection Handle Pulled
Joined
Dec 1, 2014
Messages
8,022
Location
Somewhere else
Display Name
Display name:
Unwanted Guest - Perma-ban Pending
What to do when this critical piece of equipment fails?
 
Last edited:
When my iPad battery gets old and starts warning me of imminent shutoff, I lean down, grab the power cord off the floor and plug it in. Then I go back to surfing PoA.

If you meant in the plane, I don't do anything. This is but one reason why I don't depend on uncertified electronics and uncertified software for navigation. It's only for "nice to have" information.
 
I don't have Apple devices, but my Android tablets (two of them, one per yoke), run off ship's power. I monitor their voltage periodically, making sure they are charging properly and near 100% full. If they start showing a discharge for any reason, I still have hours of internal battery time for each, and I can also turn one off if needed to conserve its battery. I also keep close to me two USB chargers, like this one. With their humongous storage capacity, each of them can (almost) start my engine, and run the tablets (if needed) until the cows come home.
 
Been flying for 24 yrs and just recently purchased a tablet (yet to use it)with an aviation app. These things are far from being critical to flight...in my world.
 
All of you are wrong.

The correct answer is to plug in the portable power bank or pull out your back-up/Iphone



Hank S said:
This is but one reason why I don't depend on uncertified electronics and uncertified software for navigation. It's only for "nice to have" information.
Click to expand...

Fore-flight is certified.
 
TK211X said:
All of you are wrong.

The correct answer is to plug in the portable power bank or pull out your back-up/Iphone





Fore-flight is certified.
Click to expand...

You can use FF for navigating while IFR?
 
TK211X said:
Fore-flight is certified.
Click to expand...

Certified for primary navigation when flying IFR? I don't think so. It may be "approved" for displaying sectionals, low enroutes and approach plates, but not for primary navigation.

iPads, Galaxy tablets, etc.--none of them are certified.
 
Technically Foreflight is primary source for *charts only* (and company documents) for some 121 and 135 operators who've gotten them approved, but not for navigation.

In fact they have to turn the navigation features off to meet their requirements.
 
Forgot to answer the actual question...

iPad starts off fully charged and stays so off of ship's power.

For a really long trip, I actually do have two iPads but rarely take the old one along.

iPhone is a tertiary backup. It can also be charged off of ship's power.

Finally the power pack for the Stratux toy can be used to keep any of them alive, and it will charge the iPhone or iPad multiple times and far longer than my fuel tanks will go.

So, battery failure? Not happening.
 
TK211X said:
No I meant VFR.

Foreflight isnt a primary source of navigation for IFR and it's not panel mounted :p
Click to expand...

You don't need any certified navigation device VFR. Unless you're operating 121, 135 or a large or multi engine aircraft, you don't need charts at all. Anything within 50 miles of my home field, I don't even look at my GPS.
 
Last edited:
In the Air Force, we are required to have a minimum of 50% battery life on every flight and an additional 10% for every hour of flight over 4 hours of flight. I use that method in civilian and never had a battery problem.
 
In my paperless cockpit (I do print copies of the destination and alternate plates, but not others), my tablets are critical for flight, since I use them for altitude reference during the approach (my panel GTN has no chart subscription).
So a loss of my tablets, say during an approach into an unplanned destination, would mean that I'd need ATC to give me the segment altitudes, which would be tough or impossible if said loss were coupled with a communication failure.
Which means that tablets are critical, and therefore I do my best to mitigate the risk of losing them by having two available, hooked up to ship's power plus their internal batteries, plus external USB charger batteries.
Plus, if all else fails, I have two backup handheld portable radios to get an ASR/PAR. :)
 
So far, all I've learned is that Bryan is off-line. Nobody is reaching for the red handle.

Mystified.
 
I could plug it into the power inverter which is connected to the plane, I could turn on the other ipad with FF loaded. Or I could just use the GTN which has all of the same information plus some.
 
None of the above... I carry a back up charger.
 
I've prepared the following checklist for dealing with an iPad failure in flight:

SQAUWK: 7700
RADIO: 121.5
KEY MIKE: SCREAMMMMMM Mayday repeatedly.


Joking aside, the iPad is a great tool, and I can't believe what it has done to make navigation more straightforward these days. I learned to fly before any of this stuff existed, and even a panel-mounted and certified GPS was seen with skepticism.

When I took my instrument check ride we were still being taught NDB holds, and all of our navigation was done by needles on steam gauges.

I would have loved to have the technology then that I do now, but I don't consider myself dependent on it, either. Still, it has enough of an advantage in the cockpit that I make sure it is up-to-date and charged before flight, and I have a backup copy of the charts on either another device or paper.
 
Last edited:
rolivi said:
So far, all I've learned is that Bryan is off-line. Nobody is reaching for the red handle.

Mystified.
Click to expand...

He posted on Facebook that he and Eren are on a date at the movies. I guess we will find out how the date went if he posts later.
 
Last edited:
Ship's power for my iPad, using the 5V USB connector on the right side of my audio panel:

PMA450_Web.gif
 
since we are pilots and pack rats by nature -- we never get rid of any good device.
2 vor with radial readout
1 hand held Garmin 296
1 hand held Garmin 395
1 ADF
2 Ipad mini mounted on ships power FF and Wingx pro
2 Iphone 6 FF wing x pro
Bladder limit 1.5 to 2
Clear blue only VFR
oh and a set of paper
:) Covered !!!!!!
 
One more option. i'd pull out my back-up iPad, purchased for just $200 from Walmart.
 
Simple. I'd just plug it in. Actually I'd already have it plugged in. :dunno: I didn't vote because there wasn't an option "plug it in". Whether you have a 12 V or a 24 V system you can charge that iPad.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Any answer listed in the poll other than "pull out a paper chart."

Patrick's answer is pretty good too.
Click to expand...

I don't know. That one dude who said declare an emergency might be serious.
 
Something about "aviate, navigate, communicate" comes to mind.

I have heard of fatal accidents just because a door popped open in flight. In these digital times an iPad is surely far, far more important to sustaining life than a cabin door (a comparison of the value of Apple vs Cessna parent company Textron should dispel any doubt) :)

I can see an iPad going black causing distraction, leading to loss of situation awareness, followed by extreme angst and one of those dreaded Wile E. Coyote moments suspended in mid air - just before the final descent into the dust.

I wonder if they teach this scenario to pull in the Cirrus training sessions?
 
Last edited:
TK211X said:
All of you are wrong.

The correct answer is to plug in the portable power bank or pull out your back-up/Iphone





Fore-flight is certified.
Click to expand...

Certified for what? And by what organization?
 
I'd revert to the panel mount GPS as primary, if IFR. VFR I wouldn't much care.

Yeah, I know. . .don't care.

Best choice for me is pray and/or die. . .
 
Flying myself I pull out a paper chart.

Airline flying I say a few curse words as I fight my jepp binder onto its window holder. If I'm on the approach I say a few more curse words as I tell the captain he is flying now.

If you haven't gathered I HATE our EFB that CONSTANTLY fails. Freaking Windows...:mad2:
 
midlifeflyer said:
Such serious answers to a non-serious poll!
Click to expand...


I always forget there's polls here. Don't even see them on Tapatalk. (Nor do I care about them in the slightest. I'm here for conversations, not polls.)

I guess the good news is, if TT really does go away in a week-ish, I'll be wasting a lot less time on PoA. Which may not be a bad thing.
 
NTSB summary. Tablet fuel exhaustion was a contributing factor. A politically correct description of dumbass.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top