That's what I'll do. And I'm betting that if I have some backup paper charts/plates with me, he'll let me use Foreflight the entire time. However, if I DON'T have them, he'll 'fail' the equipment just to prove a point.
That was the working theory on my ride and it held true. He asked, "What would you do if that failed?" I said I had paper in the bag. (Thanks to Jesse... Who was kind enough to print all the local plates for me. I was a lot of miles away from my printer. But I still now print myself plates and shove them in the bag for the destination and alternate(s). Cheap insurance. Throw them away after the flight or whenever I get around to cleaning the flight bag up for another real trip.)
He says, "What if you can't reach it?" I said I'd use the phone.
"And if it's dead?" ... I'd make sure I was at a safe altitude first and start asking for help from the controllers, and/or head for better weather if within fuel range, and/or ... rattled off a few other ideas. Flight planning stuff you should already know or have asked if the weather itself is "simulated".
The iPad was never "failed". And the conversation probably made up one of the "realistic distractions" and by then we were turning inbound for another approach. Or maybe that was during the divert to a different airport that itself was aborted halfway through after he got my thought process out of me for that. I forget.
I also specifically asked if he wanted geo-referencing off at the beginning of the flight because I would prefer not mess with iPad settings once aloft. I followed that with I understood it could not be used for primary nav. I was not required to "fail" that piece either.
I flew the steam gauges and made a comment once that it was nice to have the geo-referencing for a cross check but he would have easily caught it if I'd lost the picture on the needles and used the iPad to fix it. No doubt.
All depends on the DPE. Go prepared to not use the toys, they'll easily know if you're relying on them too much. Try to BS them about it, it'll "fail".
Keep the needles centered and use the panel as primary and I bet most will leave it alone. Some will fail it just to do it. Can't really tell. Doesn't matter. The panel wins. Every time.
To be honest, I had been flying with geo-referencing off so much with Jesse I probably under-relied on it. I wasn't even looking at the blue dot unless I concentrated on specifically using it in the scan. It didn't even register at all during the first approach. I was busy figuring out how much the wind aloft was messing with me to correct better on the next ones.
