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Giving up paper isn’t painless.

I have been making a gradual transition to a digital cockpit, and it has not been a smooth process.

My tablet of choice is the iPad. ForeFlight Mobile is the program I use for flight planning and for sectionals while flying. The app is a workhorse; the tablet—well, let’s just say we’ve had our issues.

Flight Training Editor Ian Twombly wrote a comprehensive article on iPad use (see “Tablet Revolution,” October 2015 Flight Training), and I believe I’ve encountered about every gremlin he mentioned.

Here’s what has happened:

The iPad sucks power like a vampire. For flights exceeding two hours, I have a backup battery ready to go. I don’t like seeing a charge of 27 percent when I’m still 40 minutes from my destination, because it’s a guarantee that the iPad will drain that last bit of power within a half-hour.

The iPad shuts down when it gets hot. Forget about putting it on top of the instrument panel. Mine has conked out because it got too much sun riding in the right seat and, once, while positioned on my lap. Once this happens, plan on several minutes for it to cool down and come back to life.

The iPad travels. On a recent cross-country, flying straight and level, the unsecured iPad fell off my lap and came to rest just in front of the seat. I had to unfasten my shoulder harness and twist around the yoke to retrieve it without putting the airplane in a dive. I don’t use a yoke mount, because the pilot-side yoke already has a Garmin 496. I did purchase a mount that can adhere to the window, but I haven’t found a good position for it—it seems to block my view no matter where I place it. A kneeboard mount might be the next logical choice. There are many of these currently available, but I haven’t settled on one just yet. (If you use one that you like, please tell me what it is.)

In spite of these issues, there are several things to like about flying with an iPad. And the more I fly with it, the better I like it.

Up-to-date charts. I still carry a paper sectional, because (as you have just read) electronics fail. But if for some reason I don’t make it to the FBO before a scheduled flight, the ForeFlight subscription provides all the charts and airport data I’ll need.

Weather. I’ve paired ForeFlight Mobile with a Stratus receiver so I can get in-flight weather. This is a boon on long trips, particularly during the summer when I can keep an eye on convective activity and make sure my flight path doesn’t come anywhere near it. On that same trip when the iPad slid off my lap, weather data from the Stratus helped guide me behind some precipitation moving through West Virginia and Maryland; the METARs at airports along the route verified that the conditions were improving and it was safe to continue.

I could use the Stratus to get Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) traffic on ForeFlight as well, although I'd need ADS-B Out to see the full traffic picture.

No squinting. Need to read a common traffic advisory frequency for an airport en route? No more holding the chart up to your face and squinting; just put your fingers on the screen and expand. My aging eyes really, really appreciate that.

I’m willing to go the distance with this new relationship, although I don’t know if I’ll ever launch VFR without a paper chart within grabbing distance. (And instrument flying? That’s another discussion.) I’d love to hear your experiences flying with digital devices.

Giving up paper isn’t painless.

I have been making a gradual transition to a digital cockpit, and it has not been a smooth process.

My tablet of choice is the iPad. ForeFlight Mobile is the program I use for flight planning and for sectionals while flying. The app is a workhorse; the tablet—well, let’s just say we’ve had our issues.

Flight Training Editor Ian Twombly wrote a comprehensive article on iPad use (see “Tablet Revolution,” October 2015 Flight Training), and I believe I’ve encountered about every gremlin he mentioned.

Here’s what has happened:

The iPad sucks power like a vampire. For flights exceeding two hours, I have a backup battery ready to go. I don’t like seeing a charge of 27 percent when I’m still 40 minutes from my destination, because it’s a guarantee that the iPad will drain that last bit of power within a half-hour.

The iPad shuts down when it gets hot. Forget about putting it on top of the instrument panel. Mine has conked out because it got too much sun riding in the right seat and, once, while positioned on my lap. Once this happens, plan on several minutes for it to cool down and come back to life.

The iPad travels. On a recent cross-country, flying straight and level, the unsecured iPad fell off my lap and came to rest just in front of the seat. I had to unfasten my shoulder harness and twist around the yoke to retrieve it without putting the airplane in a dive. I don’t use a yoke mount, because the pilot-side yoke already has a Garmin 496. I did purchase a mount that can adhere to the window, but I haven’t found a good position for it—it seems to block my view no matter where I place it. A kneeboard mount might be the next logical choice. There are many of these currently available, but I haven’t settled on one just yet. (If you use one that you like, please tell me what it is.)

In spite of these issues, there are several things to like about flying with an iPad. And the more I fly with it, the better I like it.

Up-to-date charts. I still carry a paper sectional, because (as you have just read) electronics fail. But if for some reason I don’t make it to the FBO before a scheduled flight, the ForeFlight subscription provides all the charts and airport data I’ll need.

Weather. I’ve paired ForeFlight Mobile with a Stratus receiver so I can get in-flight weather. This is a boon on long trips, particularly during the summer when I can keep an eye on convective activity and make sure my flight path doesn’t come anywhere near it. On that same trip when the iPad slid off my lap, weather data from the Stratus helped guide me behind some precipitation moving through West Virginia and Maryland; the METARs at airports along the route verified that the conditions were improving and it was safe to continue.

I could use the Stratus to get Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) traffic on ForeFlight as well, although I'd need ADS-B Out to see the full traffic picture.

No squinting. Need to read a common traffic advisory frequency for an airport en route? No more holding the chart up to your face and squinting; just put your fingers on the screen and expand. My aging eyes really, really appreciate that.

I’m willing to go the distance with this new relationship, although I don’t know if I’ll ever launch VFR without a paper chart within grabbing distance. (And instrument flying? That’s another discussion.) I’d love to hear your experiences flying with digital devices.