You're flying along and your iPad goes out

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

May the force be with you
Joined
Aug 8, 2013
Messages
16,070
Display Name
Display name:
Sixer
It is something we don't like to think about, let alone discuss in mixed company but I feel it is time to have this conversation.

Granted I have a chute and I have been trained by the fine folks at Cirrus to use that chute be it a bounced landing, lost comms, head cold, dandruff, or even the dreaded itchy foot inside the shoe.

But what about those without chutes?

Maybe you are one of the unwashed masses slumming it in a Piper or a Cess... ugh, I can't bring myself to type it. You know one of them planes with the wing blocking the view of God and all his glory?

What if you are flying one of "those" planes and your ipad battery dies, and then your backup ipad also dies, and your last backup ipad (I always fly with 3) dies and then your smart phone lands in your beer and dies...

I guess what I am asking is what do you do when you no longer have fore flight?
I know the obvious answer is to admit you are defeated, roll and pull, and auger it in like a man but what if there was another way?

Are there things you could try like... I don't know what but something?

You may not be able to get it on the ground in one piece but maybe you could somehow navigate so it looks like fore flight is still working. Can you make it so when you crash, the nose of the plane is oriented on the magenta line?

I know when it is my time it is my time and I know that time is when the iPad battery is drained.
I just don't want to be another story about a pilot that tried to push the flight too far having no reserve charge on his ipad and thinking he can stretch it to his destination.

I read something like 4 out of 5 chute pulls were due to running out of batteries and there is no excuse for it. The other 1 out of 5 were because the Cirrus auto-spin kicked on without warning and the cirrus spin is the only known perpetual motion system in existence. It just spins faster and faster and there is no stopping it.

Most GA crashes can be attributed to this or putting off a foreflight update, or forgetting to download that section of the sectional... Anyone of you that has forgotten this download and found them self flying over the Tron-like landscape of a grey sphere flying the magenta line to nowhere are lucky to be alive right now.

Any anyone that has experience the itchy foot inside the shoe while on a flight,.. NM, you are dead and can't be reading this if that ever happened to you.

I dunno, I just think it is time to start this dialog. What will you do when your iPad goes kaput?
If you can't answer that, maybe it is time to give up flying.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Finger on a paper chart serves me well.
Click to expand...

And what if you accidentally poke a hole in the paper chart with your finger?
I appreciate this sort of out of the box thinking but it will never work.

They don't even make paper anymore. I read that somewhere.
 
EdFred said:
iPads...hahahahaha. Losers.
Click to expand...

Hey I have seen that data center / mainframe you have hidden behind that faux panel of yours.
You can edit video, stream netflix, and hack the pentagon from your plane.

And um play spider solitaire.
 
I think the real tragedy here is that not one of you has thought about the poor beer.

I've been in this unfortunate situation due to poor planning on my part. Fortunately I had my stranger danger whistle. It didn't help, but using it let the people 50 feet below my plane as I followed the street know how displeased I was with the situation.
 
I have one of those high wingy things so I do not have the ability to look up to Big Pilot in the sky for guidance should such a catastrophe present itself and I am bit offended as SOME of us do not have the luxury of "just pull the chute" as an option in the back of my mind so the fear is VERY real.

The answer is simple, break out the metal landing calculator and hope my $1,000 check to Tesla has cleared thus creating better battery technology for the future on the backs of the rest of you taxpayer paid subsidies to prevent this scenario from happening in the first place.

I apparently can't use VOR's anymore...they have all been decommissioned...or just rebroadcasting episodes of "War of the Worlds"...or something like that... read it on the Purple Board.

Dang...those NBD questions on the PPL written would be useful right about now...but I do know getting into an uncontrolled field without the FF Pattern Entry Procedure and Runway Centerline extension overlay would be scarier than an engine out...at night...

...but when I call up ATC for my emergency of no electronic navigable sources...do I say "request" or just blurt out my emergency?
 
Last edited:
Hah!

I got a keychain VFR sectional at the survival store for JUST THIS PURPOSE, "Brian with a 'Y'." Combined with the compass on my pocketknife, I'm ready for anything!

il_570xN.723871693_i063.jpg
 
Shawn said:
I have one of those high wingy things so I do not have the ability to look up to Big Pilot in the sky for guidance should such a catastrophe present itself and I am bit offended as SOME of us do not have the luxury of "just pull the chute" as an option...

...but when I call up ATC for my emergency of no electronic navigable sources...do I say "request" or just blurt out my emergency?
Click to expand...

No red handle means "MAYDAY"; without hesitation.

Once investigation of the unavoidable crash is complete there is no doubt the FAA will determine allowing iPad batteries to go flat qualifies as "Pilot Error".
 
I must be really old school. I still carry a cat and a duck as backups.
 
We should demand a new regulation calling for auto land on every airplane. Oh, and a chute. It's the only thing that will save the children.
 
Chewing gum a penny and nickle. For crying out loud don't you people watch MacGyver?
 
If there were truly that many ipad failures, I would have to land, go buy an Android tablet, takeoff again and then I would be ok. That would get me through long enough to go buy a new iPad once the trip was over. :)
 
Find the nearest water tower, read the name off of it, then call ATC and tell them that's where search and rescue needs to look for the crash site.
 
Here's a great place to make a crash landing. Extra credit, anybody know what and where this is?Capture.JPG
 
the playboy mansion? I wouldn't mind "recharging my ipad batteries" there if ya know what I'm talkin about........
 
I carry a 1600 mAh USB power supply and an iPod.

I also subscribe to Garmin Pilot for compatibility to my GD 39 antenna..

One subscription runs on both devices. I just can't put the whole world on the iPod, but I can't fly that far anyway.

I never power anything off my 12V aux connector, if I can help it.
 
121.5 and declare an emergency. No other options at this point.
 
flhrci said:
Let Siri land the plane.
Click to expand...
That's probably not as far off into the future as you might think.

Didn't the inventor of the Wing-X software get involved in development of iPad software that would control the aircraft and execute a descent and approach?
 
I would utilize the left door available to me in that Hi-wing thingy to jump to my doom. The world will clearly be ending in a few minutes. Why stick around? If you have no left door, you are SOL!
 
genna said:
I would utilize the left door available to me in that Hi-wing thingy to jump to my doom. The world will clearly be ending in a few minutes. Why stick around? If you have no left door, you are SOL!
Click to expand...

This is a good choice.
I happen to have 2 doors and considered some sort of maneuver where I open my door, climb out, and try to jump through the prop.
 
Does anyone know if the wings are still even capable of creating lift once the tablet has failed?
I heard rumors about some tests done in the 50's and 60's but I am skeptical as to their authenticity.
 
Fly until you are almost out of gas, then plummet to the ground and hope the engine dies right before you hit the ground. Then step out of the stopped plane. Worked for Bugs Bunny. No better recommendation than from a cartoon rabbit. Either that, or jump up right before the plane hits the ground. Didnt anyone teach you this in sex ed class?
 
charheep said:
Fly until you are almost out of gas, then plummet to the ground and hope the engine dies right before you hit the ground. Then step out of the stopped plane. Worked for Bugs Bunny. No better recommendation than from a cartoon rabbit. Either that, or jump up right before the plane hits the ground. Didnt anyone teach you this in sex ed class?
Click to expand...

I accidentally took Sex EdFred class.

You dont wanna know.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top