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Need physical charts if you have GPS/app with them on?

What is the problem with you losing your enroute/approach charts due to a rather unlikely failure of your iPad? With an iPad, Garmin 695 and a 430W I think I am extremely well covered to fly without paper charts.

I personally would have no problem explaining my situation to ATC and asking them to give me a nice briefing of the approach. I don't see how that would pose much of a safety issue.

What is the problem with you losing your enroute/approach charts due to a rather unlikely failure of your iPad? With an iPad, Garmin 695 and a 430W I think I am extremely well covered to fly without paper charts

For me, it then comes down to a comfort factor. I am an IT person, I love it, but I know what a pain in the **** some of these things are, and more often than not, they go wrong just when you dont want them to. I also have a GNS430, an iPad, an iPhone, and a NATS aware available as GPS units in flight. That said, the chances of all aforementioned devices (3 of which run off their own batteries) going wrong on me (putting the GPS jamming issue to one side), are low.

But, at the moment I am just not comfortable in setting off without any form of paper chart and paper plates. Its a personal choice I suppose, and not a legal choice.

I think it is one of these issues that really turns on what you have and your perception of the risks attaching to those items. VFR is very different from IFR. In my case, I think I have enough redundancy that I don't need paper charts but I carry what I need for in flight rerouting etc and carry an electronic backup in the iPad.

In FAA land, there seems no actual requirement to carry any charts for private flying - but you must be become familiar with all available information concerning that flight. As a result, paper or electronic is irrelevant.

EGTK Oxford

In FAA land, there seems no actual requirement to carry any charts for private flying

No requirement for printed charts in any European country I know of (private flight context, non-AOC).

Is anyone aware of a country which mandates printed (and then presumably a specific brand of) chart?

IMHO, all that recent stuff about the FAA "approving" the Ipad for this application is just for commercial use, where the AOC will involve operating procedures. For private flight, the FAA never had any jurisdiction over what data presentation you carry on a portable gadget.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Personal choice.

I fly IFR with only 1 GNS430 in the aircraft, one alternator, one engine, and one iPad. I carry printed plates for my home base and home base alternate, but everything else (airways chart, VFR chart, plates) goes on the iPad. I have had my iPad since they first came out and it is bulletproof, as has been my iPhone. I do carry an airband transceiver and the aircraft has a socket in the cockpit I can use to plug it into the main aerial if I have a radio failure.

I also fly SE over water, in IMC and at night (and have done all three already today.) I am clearly a bit of a risk taker...

London area

I also fly SE over water, in IMC and at night (and have done all three already today.) I am clearly a bit of a risk taker..

Not in my view. I flew single engine over the north Atlantic and don't carry any paper plates. And I am happy to fly IMC to minimums even at night although I would always want a way out with enough fuel to comfortably get to an airport with better weather. But I also believe in staying very current so I try to fly an approach where it is available even in VMC.

EGTK Oxford

But you had a PT6 up front whereas I have a 180hp Lycosaurus (that square lever on the left is the Carb Heat...) - there is a good order of magnitude or so difference in reliability!

Not that I'm at all uncomfortable about it - I'm aware of the risks and the consequences, and if others choose not to, I'm not going to question their decision either.

London area

Well I had a Lycoming IO-540. I remember the carb heat lever. Used one once.

EGTK Oxford

Do you mean an O-540?

The IO-540 has no carb and thus no carb heat; you have an alternate air lever instead.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Um no, I have a TIO-540. The carb heat comment was meant as a joke. I am aware the Mirage doesn't have one!

EGTK Oxford
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