Ipad overheating during flight?

D

DMD3.

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Nov 8, 2014
Messages
474
Location
Tifton, Ga
Display Name
Display name:
DMD3.
This past weekend I went on a cross-country flight using Foreflight on my ipad, and enroute to my destination I noticed it was very warm, and on the way back it got downright hot. Thankfully the ipad did not stop working. At 5,500 and 4,500 feet msl, the wind coming in through the ventilation was just like an air-conditioner, so it was not hot at all in the cabin (I was flying a Cessna 172).

Once I noticed how hot the ipad was, I took it out of the kneeboard and placed it on my left leg so that the outside air from the vent could blow down on the ipad. I'm not sure if it being in the kneeboard kept it from 'breathing' (like the Stratus, that has a built-in fan for circulating air to keep it from overheating) cause it, but shortly after placing it in the cooler air it cooled off.

Has anyone else had this problem?
 
Which ipad is it? If the kneeboard is warmed by your leg that could be causing the overheating as it's not able to cool the ipad as much. I have an ipad mini 4 and use the yoke mount and don't have any problems.
 
Did you have it charging off of the airplane electrical system while you were using it? Could be a problem with the power source or the cabling.
 
Just got my private last month and ordered my stratus and got my ForeFlight. I was reading the day before about iPads over heating but figured would t happen to me. Went up for my first flight after getting my private and about 45 minutes into the flight my iPad over heated and shut off. :oops: Took it out of the case and held it infront of the air vent until it turned back on.

Basically the lesson is don't use leather cases on iPads.
 
I've had them over heat several times because of the sun hitting it. I've never had one overheat unless the sun was directly on it. Now I just keep an eye on it and if I need to, I'll throw something over it to block the sun. And if it's really warm, I'll put it in front of the vent every so often to keep it from over heating. I wear mine on my leg with a kneeboard. I learned the hard way and had it overheat at a bad time so since then I've been more vigilant in keeping it cool.
 
I have not had mind over heat yet, however it does get remarkably hot. I do not keep it in a kneeboard I keep it out by itself and it still gets crazy warm. Glad I'm not the only one!
 
Yes, if you wrap them up and expose it to the sun, an IPAD over heats.
 
same here. don't let it sit in the sun
 
Yep. Only a problem in direct sunlight. Keep it out of the sun. If it does overheat, put it next to an air vent to let it cool down.
 
If they are in a case they will overheat in the sun in an aircraft. Took mine out of the case and placed it in a RAM yoke mount and have had no more problems. The back of the case acts as a a radiator to cool it so anything covering the back can cause it to overheat.
 
Kind of pricey, but I've been considering this X-Naut cooling case for my iPad. I had an iPad mini 2 in the cockpit, likely in sunlight, turn off in flight. It was not a happy moment, but luckily it was redundant to the GPS in the center panel.
 
Matthew K said:
Which ipad is it? If the kneeboard is warmed by your leg that could be causing the overheating as it's not able to cool the ipad as much. I have an ipad mini 4 and use the yoke mount and don't have any problems.
Click to expand...

Ipad Pro (9.7 inch).
 
Cooter said:
I've had them over heat several times because of the sun hitting it. I've never had one overheat unless the sun was directly on it. Now I just keep an eye on it and if I need to, I'll throw something over it to block the sun. And if it's really warm, I'll put it in front of the vent every so often to keep it from over heating. I wear mine on my leg with a kneeboard. I learned the hard way and had it overheat at a bad time so since then I've been more vigilant in keeping it cool.
Click to expand...

^^^This^^^
I keep a rag handy to shield it from the sun until it cools off
 
Yeah, I've had mine overheat in flight a couple times and shut off with an overheat warning. Like others stated, it's usually because it's in the sun and running ForeFlight at the same time. I've had it overheat on my lap and once, when I threw it on the glareshield (not doing that again). It's never overheated in the yoke mount, but I'm often too lazy on flights to local destinations to rig up the yoke mount.

When I redo the panel for ADS-B, I'll probably slide a GTN device in, which is likely to free up the slots on the right side of the panel. Maybe I'll put a more permanent mount for the device there.
 
Direct sunlight on the glass is the culprit. I've had it happen twice. Last was just last week. It was on my right knee and the sun through the canopy of a DA-40 did it in. A few minutes in the map case and it cooled down.

First time was on the wife's lap, sun through the canopy in a C-182 directly on the iPad heated it up.

iPad has a temp monitor, flashes an overheat warning and could shut down. I moved mine in time to avoid a shutdown.
 
I bought a mini and frankly I find it to be the perfect size... even with its smaller size I struggle to find a comfortable place for it in the cockpit
 
Left mine on the glareshield last summer for about an hour, it was about 100f oat. Got taxi instructions and started taxing out, tried to turn the iPad on and it stated it was overheated, problem was I couldn't get it cooled down until I got to altitude to get the cold air on it. Never made that mistake again.
 
BillTIZ said:
Too big for most cockpits.

Sometimes my standard size iPad seems to big and I've thought of getting a mini just for flying.
Click to expand...

The 9.7 is the standard size. You're thinking of the giant 12.9.
 
arnoha said:
Yeah, I've had mine overheat in flight a couple times and shut off with an overheat warning. Like others stated, it's usually because it's in the sun and running ForeFlight at the same time.
Click to expand...

I've always wondered if running Foreflight had something to do with it due to the workload. The battery definitely drains faster than when I'm just causually websurfing at the house, though this could be due to the screen brightness being set on 80%+ (which also may have a hand in it overheating).
 
The only time my iPad overheated was when it was sitting on the Cessna 172 instrument panel in direct sunlight. It was not plugged in, and was running FlyQ. Cabin temperature was upper 70s. I took it out of direct sunlight for a few minutes and it worked fine the rest of the flight. It does have a fake leather cover so that may have contributed. I'm never without paper charts and paper navlogs so it was no big deal.
 
DMD3. said:
I've always wondered if running Foreflight had something to do with it due to the workload. The battery definitely drains faster than when I'm just causually websurfing at the house, though this could be due to the screen brightness being set on 80%+ (which also may have a hand in it overheating).
Click to expand...

It's not screen brightness, it's ForeFlight. If you have FF up during flight, I'll give high odds the map screen is the screen you're using most frequently. The moving map massively taxes the processor, with the only thing that wants more power is the synthetic vision. The power controller will crank the processor's clock up for that. Maximum clock means maximum power draw. Max power draw means max heat.

For reference, an idle iPad with the screen on draws around 4W. Crank that processor to maximum and it's up to around 11W. You'll see the battery come down three times as fast. The greater draw on the battery also means the battery heats up more. Synth vision will keep it near that 11W max. Moving map won't be quite that bad, but it will also be quite high, especially if you have many layers turned on or connected to a Stratus.
 
Dirtflyer said:
Left mine on the glareshield last summer for about an hour, it was about 100f oat. Got taxi instructions and started taxing out, tried to turn the iPad on and it stated it was overheated, problem was I couldn't get it cooled down until I got to altitude to get the cold air on it. Never made that mistake again.
Click to expand...
These things were made to work in the lab in Cupertino.
 
I'm telling ya, some GAMI injectors and LOP and these iPad thingies make it way past TBO. :)
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. While mine got hot, it never did give an overheat warning.

Another probable downside to overheating is shortening the life of the iPad and battery.
 
Agree with the above. Cases and direct sunlight are your enemy.

Never really thought about processor use having a significant impact on heat but it does make sense.
 
Still wondering why I'm confused by the FAA encouraging their use for ADS-B, and why I refuse to do so? The joys of uncertified equipment.

Don't get caught with an overheated tablet, or dead battery, if it's your only source of charts, approach plates, weather, traffic, etc. How fun would it be trying to get under the Bravo shelf and transition a couple of Delta areas, and oops, your iPad shuts down? What was that next frequency, and just where does the airspace start?
 
Put one end of a towel over the iPad. Put the other end of the towel over your head. No more heating up, and no more glare problems either. Turn on synthetic vision and you'll be fine. Nobody looks outside the cockpit anymore. Just fly through the boxes and it'll take you right down to the flare.

I wish I was a DPE. I'd fail everything and hand the examinee a paper chart. I think aviation is getting too video gamey, but that's just me.

And yes, I use FF as well. sigh....
 
I have flown with an IPad for over five years now without overheating. This is very simple to accomplish: simply keep it out of direct sunlight. Do that and it will be very unlikely to overheat. That is not to say that I have not had the IPad fail in other ways, but you have control of keeping it cool.
 
Last edited:
Chrisj13 said:
Put one end of a towel over the iPad. Put the other end of the towel over your head. No more heating up, and no more glare problems either. Turn on synthetic vision and you'll be fine. Nobody looks outside the cockpit anymore. Just fly through the boxes and it'll take you right down to the flare.

I wish I was a DPE. I'd fail everything and hand the examinee a paper chart. I think aviation is getting too video gamey, but that's just me.

And yes, I use FF as well. sigh....
Click to expand...

I agree, but if you do that, you should probably declare a 430/530 failed as well. Not as likely in the real world, but it could happen. I have had my Foreflight fail, but have yet to see the 430 go away.
 
rtk11 said:
Kind of pricey, but I've been considering this X-Naut cooling case for my iPad. I had an iPad mini 2 in the cockpit, likely in sunlight, turn off in flight. It was not a happy moment, but luckily it was redundant to the GPS in the center panel.
Click to expand...
I bought an X-Naut and it works perfectly, even when my iPad is in direct sunlight.
 
Chrisj13 said:
I wish I was a DPE. I'd fail everything and hand the examinee a paper chart. I think aviation is getting too video gamey, but that's just me.

And yes, I use FF as well.
Click to expand...

I keep an old paper chart as a super backup

There is a crazy level of redundancy in most cockpit
*Ipad and FF
*spare power booster pack that will keep the ipad alive for another 5 hours
*typically two 430s at least, or a GTN 650, etc.
^then if by some crazy all those fail you still have your iPhone or Android with a GPS and map on there and apps

**My bigger fear, and a very irrational one, is that something would cause the whole GPS network to go down... then it doesn't matter what you have all your devices will be out of commission. How many of us could get home in IMC with the use of VORs?

I know they're antiquated, but I was surprised that there aren't any self contained positioning systems out there using accelerometers. They had those in the 1960s that worked "sort of well" - I'm sure with today's tech you could build a GPS unit that had accelerometers as a self contained back up. When it had a signal then calibrate itself every 60 minutes or so, but if you lost signal or the power went down it would still keep your oriented
 
Tantalum said:
I know they're antiquated, but I was surprised that there aren't any self contained positioning systems out there using accelerometers. They had those in the 1960s that worked "sort of well" - I'm sure with today's tech you could build a GPS unit that had accelerometers as a self contained back up. When it had a signal then calibrate itself every 60 minutes or so, but if you lost signal or the power went down it would still keep your oriented
Click to expand...

It exists! http://www.vectornav.com/products/vn-200 $2,100+ for the part, but I don't know of any full products built around it. Wouldn't surprise me if it's intended mostly for military drones.

EDIT: Also, GPS going out is not an irrational fear. The GPS signal is very weak. So weak, it's routinely under the noise floor. (Weaker than the background noise at that frequency.) Jamming or even accidentally interfering with the civilian signal is really, really easy. Maybe that's not a system outage, but if it's where you are, it might as well be.
 
Last edited:
Redundancy:

Cessna:

Custom Panel with Dual VOR's, one being glide slope, localizer
IPhone FF on yoke
IPad FF in lap on lanyard.
Battery pack available for Apples
Chart at hand

Mooney:

430W with glide slope indicator
VOR glide slope, localizer
IPhone FF on yoke
iPad FF in backseat turned on and ready
Power outlet with APPLE power supplies for both Apples
Chart at hand
 
Tantalum said:
I keep an old paper chart as a super backup

There is a crazy level of redundancy in most cockpit
*Ipad and FF
*spare power booster pack that will keep the ipad alive for another 5 hours
*typically two 430s at least, or a GTN 650, etc.
^then if by some crazy all those fail you still have your iPhone or Android with a GPS and map on there and apps

**My bigger fear, and a very irrational one, is that something would cause the whole GPS network to go down... then it doesn't matter what you have all your devices will be out of commission. How many of us could get home in IMC with the use of VORs?

I know they're antiquated, but I was surprised that there aren't any self contained positioning systems out there using accelerometers. They had those in the 1960s that worked "sort of well" - I'm sure with today's tech you could build a GPS unit that had accelerometers as a self contained back up. When it had a signal then calibrate itself every 60 minutes or so, but if you lost signal or the power went down it would still keep your oriented
Click to expand...

I hope I am never tested with your dead sattelite scenario, but at least at this point in time I believe I could find my way in with VORs and glide slope, but doing it single pilot would be a sphincter shrinker.
 
arnoha said:
It exists! http://www.vectornav.com/products/vn-200 $2,100+ for the part, but I don't know of any full products built around it.
Click to expand...
this thing is pretty sweet... I wonder if you could build something around this with a Raspberry Pi and sync it up to your iPad and Foreflight a-la bad-elf or Stratux. I must say, I'd feel pretty invincible if I knew I had a GPS independent INS on board the plane...
 
I've had my yoke mounted iPad over heat when the sun is on it. I either shield it or turn it off to prevent. I have also had the iPad shut off when it is too cold. It was 5 degrees outside prior to take off and the iPad shut off during run up. Bright sunny day and it didn't seem too cold inside the plane.
 
A very minor point, but it may make a small difference...

Black absorbs more heat than white. So, all things being equal a white-faced iPad should run a tiny bit cooler than a black-faced one in the sun.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top