Are your SMGCS Taxi Charts Geo-referenced?
 

Hey gang-

I was surprised to see that the SMGCS low-vis taxi Jepps are not geo-referenced in Flitedeck Pro on our company-issued tablets. That is, they won't display our present position on those charts. The regular 10-9 taxi pages are geo-referenced and display our position just fine. But not any SMGCS pages, or for that matter the 10-9B ramp charts.

Just wondered if this is the norm.

Thanks!

PS- Also surprised that there isn't a dedicated tablet or "Electronic Flight Bag" section here on APC.

Delta's Surface EFBs have "own-ship" position displayed on the Jepp Flightdeck Pro?

Is that derived using the device's GPS, or an external/bluetooth GPS signal?

FedEx iPad are working the same way with FD Pro. Ownship displayed on 10-9 only - no SMGCS or Ramp. GPS is from internal iPad, not anything external (on ours).

I can see not having the ramp, but it seems like SMGCS would be an obvious bonus. However, there have been times that it takes a while (or never) to gonculate position after landing and won't display it. When we first got them, company policy prohibited use of that option (still does with the enroute position display).

Perhaps it's liability thing. Can't throw it all back at the pilots when they have a runway incursion at 300 RVR if they can claim the iPad made them do it.

Yes, own-ship can be turned in FDP on the Surface. The device has no GPS of its own. The GPS position was being provided to the Surface via Bluetooth and a Bad Elf Pro 2200.

And no- this wasn't in flight, but rather in testing from the ramp area. Worked great on the 10-9, but no other.

Thanks for the point of comparison. Holy smokes yes SMGCS would be the most amazing use for this!

I was at Jepp in DEN this week with one of the FD product managers. "Own ship" presentation is somehow controlled by the FAA and very restricted for 121 operations. Part 91 operators have "own ship" symbol on every geo-referenced chart. As if 121 guys can't be trusted or 91 passengers that would be endangered on an airliner are expendable. "Own ship" is pretty handy when projected on 15" screen doing a arc approach into a strange field.

GF

Are your SMGCS Taxi Charts Geo-referenced?
 

Jepp's product is way behind the competition. But unfortunately my company ditched the competition for Jepp and iPad.

The 777 has internal ground charts and ship position in the Boeing EFB, it's awesome.

See Advisory Circular 120-76C

The iPad or Surface doesn't have the inertial references calculations or PRAIM to know when it isn't in the correct position. My iPad and iPhone occasionally tell me they're somewhere else when they're not. But the airplane alerts you as soon as it detects a problem and suspects the position is incorrect. Plus those devices only have one GPS receiver.

Well my Bad Elf has never been off by more than a meter or two to my eye. Far faster acquisition and accuracy than my iPhone or iPad (which are awesome but not for this and as you said sometimes think they're collocated at the cell tower if they don't know otherwise).

But I realize technology is getting wayyyyyy ahead of the game. No worries...was just asking the question about SMGCS.