Exactly at 110kts what do you need a EFB for?
I mean wouldn't it take you a day to even travel from the front to the back of a sectional
James, I have to take issue with your statements cited above. You are a prolific poster on this forum, and you often make cogent observations that are interesting and insightful. (I looked through your threads for a bit). And indeed you may be technologically proficient, and you may be a great pilot with solid stick and rudder skills. You may event be a great instructor for the basic skills of flight.
But I take issue with how you seem to have chosen to dig in your heels in this discussion, expressing your disdain for any other viewpoint than your own. Sundancer is 100% correct - technology can make us "safer" (I'll keep the quotes because we could debate what safer means but that is a different topic). I have no idea where you live or fly, but it must be a wonderful place, full of courteous aviators that move out of your way, tremble in fear, and bow to show their respect as you approach. Perhaps you fly in some lightly populated airspace where the nearest control tower is two states away. Good for you! Wherever you are based, I'm guessing it isn't the type of environments found in Southern California, Florida, in the NorthEast near the SFRA around DC, or any other heavily populated airspace, because if you did, you'd have read the posts in this thread and thought about what capabilities EFBs and other aviation technology can actually offer to improve the safety of flight. It's abundantly clear you have not.
In this instance - TRAFFIC comes to mind. Where I live, when I depart from my Class D airfield on a nice, sunny VFR day, I don't get to wander off and comfortably count on "see and avoid" out the window while using a paper chart to keep me safe. My home field is surrounded by Class B, a permanent TFR, restricted areas, MOAs, three training areas, and 6 other airfields all within 30 NM. It isn't unusual to be "Number 5" or even "Number 7" in the traffic pattern, or to have 15+ ADS-B targets painted on the EFB chart in my cockpit, even when the 15 NM / 3000 foot vertical filter is engaged. So yes, I can legally fly with a paper chart and little else, but in my view that isn't a bright thing to do given the amount of traffic transiting the area. The ADS-B traffic display on my EFB helps me know where to look, and allows me to initiate subtle clearance maneuvers to avoid traffic that I can't see out the window despite looking as diligently as I can.
A student here on his first solo can be expected to make that wonderful first flight in airspace shared with business jets, helicopters, P-51 Mustangs and T-6 warbirds doing overhead approaches, instrument students flying the ILS, and a myriad of other challenging situations. But certainly, let's not confuse that poor student pilot by providing them with a tool that helps them visualize what's going on around them.
Your posts makes it appear that while you probably are aware that other pilots operate in a huge variety of environments, you know better, and you pronounce that one doesn't need an EFB at 110kts. Were you kidding? If you meant to amuse - it isn't really amusing. It's just pedantic, and perfectly exemplifies the Anti-Authority attitude taught in the FAA Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (page 2-5). The EFB business is growing to become a $5.6 billion dollar industry by 2020, and the $$ spent on other technologies dwarfs that amount, but I guess there are a lot of dumb aviators out there writing those checks. The trend to adopt technology into aviation be damned -
James knows better. I hear the FAA is looking for a new permanant Administrator - perhaps you should apply.
For clarity, I agree with your point that a pilot needs to be proficient in the basics, and how to navigate without electronic devices. In fact, it appears that Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's flight department does too. I went to their website and found that while the use of EFBs is strongly encouraged and embedded into their Part 141 training syllabus, students are mandated to also carry a paper chart with them. So if you are an instructor that makes certain your students have rock-solid skills for aircraft control - good on you! However, your posts are concerning, as they seem to make it clear little interest in preparing your students for the real world of aviation they'll experience after they come out from under your wing. Do you teach them how to use the tools they almost certainly acquire the week after their Private checkride?
In the same line of thought, and responsive to your posts above, did you ever think there might be a reason that "Pre solo spin training, full stall training, falling leaf stall training" isn't in the ACS? The reason is simple - instructors and students tend to die when those training operations don't go exactly as planned. So in a careful analysis of risk versus benefit, those requirements were modified or removed. But sure, if you are a super-pilot, you certainly can teach your student to do full stalls. I did them, and found that to be a useful experience. But that isn't the ruleset we operate under these days. A major point of training is to keep pilots and passengers alive, and the reason the PTS was modified during the development of the Private Pilot ACS so the student begins recovery at the stall horn is because THAT IS EXACTLY what the FAA wants a pilot to do when flying normal operations. I think few seasoned pilots would argue that a new pilot with 40-60 hours of experience is just beginning to learn. The contents of a training program mandated across the country must balance many factors, and I think the ACS will continue to be adapted as we learn more and more. But it is the "law of the land" that we all live under at present, so in my view it is better to embrace it and improve it than it is to simply reject it in favor of some notion of one lone instructor who's got a better plan... Your posts lately make it seem that you are striving to be that argumentative contrarian that has it all figured out, waiting for the rest of us to catch up with you.
Best wishes and safe flying.
