Originally Posted by Soxfan1

Air Wisconsin pilot chiming in here. A few years on property.

Charts are not as good as Jepp, clearly, but just like FAA charts are not as good as Jepp, you do get use to them and they work fine. Would I prefer Jepp? Of course. Clearly a better product.

Batt life? We just switched from mini iPads to the full size ones and also replaced all of our backup batteries in December.

With the mini, I never once used the back up battery to charge the iPad mid duty day. I hardly ever had less than 25% battery life remaining at the end of a long day. When they replaced those back ups they let us keep them. I still pack it and now use it for my iPhone (it’s a 6s so it drains fast). Never used it for the mini once but it does a great job on the iPhone now.

With the full size, in a much much shorter sample size of two months, battery life is slightly worse but the same stats above apply. Have not ever used new battery back up yet either.

I use night mode for the most part but use day when actively looking at it. I have it on when just as needed during cockpit set up. Than full on for all the times it’s required after that. Off the majority of cruise except during arrival prep or when enroute charts are required. Than on again all times required for the remainder of the arrival approach and taxi.

I have my iPad automatically connect to the United gate WiFi (Sky-fi) in hubs and use it for company business and weather / radar viewing during turns. So it’s on and off a bit on the gate also.

I saw this thread so I tracked it last trip.

9 legs in two days. And 8/5 hours of block over said two days. Both nights at the end of the duty day my battery had 13% and 29% respectively remaining. The other shorter 2-3 leg days had 63% and 53% respectively. This again is based on: brand new iPad. On at all times required but off when not. Mostly using night mode when on and switching to day when actually looking at it. And WiFi / extra company related /weather usage at gate in hubs.

Overall the charts are mediocre but usable. Batt life seems to be enough to get through even the longest 5 leg 8 hours of block type of days if you are fully charged and use night mode as a “sleep” mode during times you must have it on but are not actively using it. I would guess that day mode all the time would require the use of the back up on long days but I have never tried that.

Ymmv.