The ipad isnt FAA/PMA certified either. All EFB's to my knowledge have to go through pretty rigorous testing for use in the cockpit. A major one being the survival of a rapid decompression without the screen grenading (which is made of a very thin piece of glass) and sending particles in to the air. The certified EFB's cost upwards of $3500. I wouldnt hold my breath the 121 world will ever see these on the flight deck Plus I doubt Apple will spend the ridiculous amount of money it would take to alter the ipad and send it through certification. Having worked for the airlines in a previous life I dont think they have the common sense to use EFB's. I know CAL had them installed in the 777's. Thats real usefull - put it in the plane that goes to 6 different airports not the 737's that got to 180....

 

Had a line check a few days back and was told that a final decision hadn't been made yet, but it was highly likely we would be getting iPads. Reason? $40-$60 million to reprint all our pubs with the combined language. MUCH cheaper to have one set in the airplane and outfit pilots with the iPad that could auto update in ops.

My LCA also talked about partitioning the HD so that you could use it for personal use also. Thought behind that is guys would take better care of it if they used it themselves.

 

From UAL ALPA's recent rumor control posting:

>>>>>>>>>>>

Rumor: We might be issued Apple iPads sometime in 2011.

Answer: According to UAL Flight Operations management, the Authorization Request for iPads is complete and Flight Technology is currently vetting the program through Corporate Finance. There is a goal to present the program to the Board of Directors in December for final approval, with pilots receiving them sometime in 2011. The iPads would be a Class 1 EFB provided to all United and Continental pilots.

 

Dec. 9th is the date Smilton gets to give the final go ahead.

30west

 

Here is a good rumor. We will be getting our flight bags back and will be able to do our own revisions again.

 

UAL IS PRESENTLY WORKING The EFB installations on the B777's amd the B747's. It's a 4 part Modification so I'd look for it either Late 2011 or early 2012. the Shipset flight bags are ongoing and reportedly foing nicely, And revisions you want to look at and print can be found online at Skynet under flight operations/dispatch and the fleet type. where every Flight manual is posted Many of UAL's Mods are not easy to see but look under MELA/fleet (320,319,777 etc and you can see many of the flight crew impact mods in progress.

 

As far as the shipsets doing nicely excatly what are you referring to. It is fine we have them but show me the savings from the 3 years of developing this highly complex system that saves no money. <it seems like most of the time the only people that win with this stuff, shipsets, pbs ect are the pilots that dont fly the line and just sit on their butss on sa special assignment. I think the pbs guy even got a new bid great for a gut that never flies the line.

Dont get me wrong I like not having the flight bag but take a good hard look at how this program came about.

 

************************************************** *********

What actual difference does it make HOW it came about? Because just llke everything Else, Unless they issue the iPad to EACH pilot and make THEM Personally responsible for them? As usual, it will fall on Maintenence
to replace them after they're abused or stolen from one airplane to another after one doesn't work somewhere and a Captain will tell some Controller they can't Possibly open a flight bag and READ the flight manual anymore. Just like we've had refusals for Autobrakes, Autothrottles an Adiru being inop (when there are Three on board. Or an Apu being inop Flying over Mountains west of Denver, as if having the APU is going to help the airplane in GETTING over the Mountains. So No, I don't care essentially about the ipad OR the EFB just the added BS it will bring after it's installed. Heck I'm still wondering How some crew's flew BEFORE we had autoland to hear all the "Caterwauling" I hear when it's inop. JEEZ!
Just seems like another "Bell and Whistle" to me..

 

Each pilot will be issued one, not sure where the responsibility lies on taking care of it.It will be partioned off so it can be used for personal use also.

30west

 

Ah, those pesky little refusals eh? I thought that was taken care of in the "lawsuit" when UAL mgt insinuated that if was able to be mel'd, then the crew had to take it.

If it wasn't for UAL crack maintenance slapping those fancy orange stickers all over the cockpit due to lack of parts or time, this airline would never get off the ground. Perplexing isn't it?

Yep, auto throttles, tcas, radar, gpws, apu's, system redundancy, who needs it. If Charles Lindbergh didn't need it, then why do we?