pangolin

The CRJ CFM has a procedure for your backup battery overheating while charging the iPad so I’m thinking in a back handed way it’s not prohibited.

NovemberBravo

That’s probably because they know half of us are flying around with them.

calmwinds

Half? Just half? They just aren’t presently required.

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.

NovemberBravo

That’s a lot of battery usage. With Jepps I can get through a full 4 day on a single charge.

Soxfan1

True it is certainly high relative to Jepp, no denying that. I guess my point was that it is in fact high but not ever over 100% per duty day so high but still usable.

My company requires our battery to be at 90% or higher at the start of a duty day so I need to charge nightly anyway. If I only used less than 25% a day like with Jepp or if I use 40-80% like I do, I still need to plug it in so the battery remaining number to me is not critical so long as it’s higher than O.

But yes they are worse than Jepp on functionality and battery life. It’s the Hunts ketchup of charts...still can eat the cheeseburger but will be wishing you had Heinz.

Worst analogy of the day award goes to.....

calmwinds

According to our training, we are not to start a leg with less than 50%. So, you never get to the last leg of a long duty day and launch with less power than this?

Soxfan1

FOM states that legs after first leg (90%) can be started with as little as 30% for those less than 2 hrs and in the rare case of planned block time from 2-3 hrs it’s 40%. I usually dont end my day with less than 25% and am above 30% as I go into the last leg.

Soxfan1

Also flying only the 200 our legs are shorter than Mesa’s. So looking back over my past 100 flights, I had 10 block over 2 but our FOM is based on planned flight time (off to on) and I log Out to In, so those few over 2 hrs had taxi out and ins at ord, or enroute reroute/holds that put us well over planned flight time. I’d say 95% or higher of our legs have planned flight times under 2 hrs so the 30% rule is most common.

No Land 3

Just install built in mounts with USB power... Nope, instead they make it the pilots problem...
When you guys get on with a company that doesn't cut every single corner to eek out another .01%, you're going to be overwhelmed with joy. You don't even know!