All the weekend warriors with iPads are going to get scary here in FL soon. I've noticed a huge shift just this past year. Way more students are using iPads for Instrument training. I think it is a useful tool. But until flight training programs start to incorporate it into training somehow I think it can be dangerous. There was a guy around here just recently that busted the shelf of Bravo because he was fiddling around with his iPad.

Plus, I kind of think GPS and iPads can degrade a pilot's core instrument skills to a degree. A lot of pilots would be lost without that dual stack 430 or G1000 in the cockpit. I'm sure eventually it will become that way with iPads when they show the airplanes position on the approach plate etc... Take it away, and people will be lost. We had a DPE that un-satted an instrument student a while back. He was shooting an approach with GPS and an iPad. The DPE said bam, you just got struck by lightning and your battery for your iThingy just died. What do you do. Kid was in over his head at that point. Kind of a dick move on part of the DPE but it certainly drove a point home to this kid.