Paper Charts & Plates

saddletramp

saddletramp

Line Up and Wait
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Oct 15, 2015
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Walla Walla. WA
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saddletramp
First off, I did a search on this & couldn't find a thing.

I've been away from flying for a while & started jumping into the wild blue again last fall. One of the first things I did was renew my IFR Jeppesen charts. I had three leather binders from days past but only got the charts to fill one. I had to...it has my name on it in gold lettering. :)

After subscribing to Foreflight on my Ipad I realized how useful that format is. It still makes me nervous not having paper plates in the cockpit. When I took my Flight Review the CFI kind of laughed at my Jepp manual.

So what's the norm now a days? Are my paper Jepp manuals out of date? :dunno:
 
EFB (electronic flight bag) is the new thing. Feel free to use your paper plates and your EFB until you get used to the new tech. I haven't used paper plates or charts in years.

I make sure my iPad is charged and carry a portable battery for those times I may need it.
 
to take some of the 'nervous' out of it, FF allows you to put a second copy on another device... maybe you have an iphone, someone you fly with regularly has an ipad, iphone?
I would not enjoy flying complicated airspace with an iphone4 but it works. Sure saves buying, remembering, carrying pounds of old school around.
 
Foreflight Pro SV with gov paper plates for a backup
 
If it helps, maybe print the plates for your destination, and perhaps the alternate, if you need one. It may be, after a while, you just don't bother to print 'em every time. . .
 
I have FF. But I still print the PDF file for the approaches I think I'll need. I print on full 8.5x11. And reference that whil flying the approach. I also load up FF for flying , it's nice to see your airplane georeferenced on the approach for situational awareness. And if I get thrown an approach I did not print, I'm good to go.
 
I have been only using my iPad while flying my personal plane since I got it in 2012. I love it. I keep the content downloaded on my phone as well, not an ideal sized screen but will do incase of an emergency. I also have digital planes on my avionics in my plane so theres another set of data too just incase. I would carry the paper until I felt comfortable with the iPad, no need to rush into it, once your comfortable using the iPad and trust it then decide if you want to eliminate the paper or not.
 
There is no "norm." There are pilots usung paper, pilots using tablets. There are tablet pilots usung paper backup, pilots using electronic backup, and pilots using no backup. The reasons for the choices are as varied as the choices themselves.

For plain vanilla Part 91, there is an AC, 91-78, that talks about it, but for the most part all it does is leave all the choices to us.

For me, I've been using a tablet with ForeFlight in place of charts since the first year the app was available. Paper backup disappeared for me soon after, pretty much as the paper expired. For IFR flights, I always have a second device, in my case an Android tablet running a different app, but I often forego even that for VFR. (Actually, for some VFR flights I use my backup device instead if my iPad to keep myself up-to-date with it).

If there is one thing I think is most important, other than being able to fly without it of course, it is to learn how to use it properly before taking to the air and having at least a safety pilot and perhaps even an instructor those first few times in the air. The folks who don't like the tech often refer to it as a "toy". They are partially right. Too many pilots treat it as a toy they can simply jump into an airplane with, rather than as a cockpit tool that requires familiarization and even training like any other cockpit tool.
 
When I was training for my IR I started with paper and no tablet and slowly transitioned to a tablet as primary with paper as my backup. Today I've dumped paper completely: primary is Garmin Pilot on an Android tablet, secondary is Flute Charts on my EFIS, and tertiary is a second copy of Garmin Pilot on my IPhone (like FF, Garmin let's you put 1 subscription on 2 devices).
 
I use my iPad for plates. iPhone as a back up. Paper plates as a back up back up. Do whatever you're comfortable with. There is no "norm"
 
I carry two iPads (an iPad Air and an iPad mini) and if I'm going to be in IMC, I'll usually print out a couple of hardcopy plates for my destination from Skyvector.com.
 
I've only been flying for a few years... but I haven't touched a paper chart since my PPL... even during my instrument training. I use a tablet and EFB product and have my phone as backup.

Most VFR flights though I don't even take my Ipad... just fly.
 
I'm in the same boat, quit flying before GPS and returned after it had been around a long time and pretty much became the norm. I still won't fly without the paper in the cockpit but probably will eventually. The biggest problem I have is cockpit organization. If ya don't mind me jumpin on board with questions of my own here saddletramp, what does everyone do with their IPADS and phones up there? I use the mini. Being a renter I have to bring everything with me and set up in airplanes that don't have clips, mounts and other gadgets.
 
luvflyin said:
The biggest problem I have is cockpit organization. If ya don't mind me jumpin on board with questions of my own here saddletramp, what does everyone do with their IPADS and phones up there? I use the mini. Being a renter I have to bring everything with me and set up in airplanes that don't have clips, mounts and other gadgets.
Click to expand...
That varies also. Again, it's not much different than paper.

A lot of us like a RAM yoke mount so the tablet becomes part of our scan without dropping out head to look down, just like many of us liked a yoke clip for paper. Others like a kneeboard, etc, etc, etc. Lots of options out there, especially for the smaller Mini.

But on your organization concern, that is probably the single biggest plus of an EFB properly used. Less distracting, not more.

Most everything you want is no more than a few taps away, with maybe a few more on a keyboard search to enter an identifier. To illustrate, my club has a group fly-in. My wife (a non-pilot) and I shared an airplane with a member who, very experienced, had just returned to flying and wanted to treat it as a practice IFR flight, hood and all. Using paper he did the usual routine of pulling out and replacing the right charts, unfolding en routes, flipping though approach plates, referencing AFD.

Watching from the back seat, my wife's post-flight observation? "Wow he seemed to do an awful lot of work on the flight. No wonder you love your iPad."
 
We don't even use Ipads. Paperless cockpit means all the charts and plates are on MFD
 
I stopped my paper subscriptions at Sporty's last year.

EFB all the way with Garmin Pilot and/or WingX. Don't see the point in keeping paper when I get the same stuff on my iPad and my phone. I carry two different battery packs in case either dies.
 
I never touched a paper anything all through IR training last summer and fall, except for a low chart.
 
I have plates/charts on my iPad and iPhone and yoke/console mounts for both plus I carry paper as backup. I have a Garmin 596 with old charts/plates that a friend gave me a few years ago but the cost to update the software to current charts is not worth the cost.
 
I still like paper, but I almost never use Low Enroutes. I always highlight my path on Sectionals, and like to print approaches for my destination when expecting IMC. It's so much easier to clip the plate I'll use to the yoke. I print 2 per page and fold I half, just right to fit my kneeboard.

Just in case I need to divert, or make a side trip, I keep the bound boom on the floor. Joepilot.com gives a nice discount buying them, and since I subscribe to several I pay actual shipping cost.
 
Tablet with Avare charts and plate for primary, phone with Avare for charts and plates for secondary, G1000 for tertiary. Keep a charger for both devices that can run off the plane.
 
I have plates in the GTN. Plates on my Ipad and plates on my iphone.
I also have the plates downloaded in two different pieces of software on my Ipad and Iphone just incase Foreflight takes a dump for whatever reason.
I talked to an old guy the other day who swore that that was an awful idea, nothing replaces paper. And started a rant about power surges from the sun or something like that. The odds of a power surge from the sun putting out ALL of my electronics is way lower than his odds of dropping the plate beneath his seat....
Not to mention. None of those paper approach plates will work if the sun has some kind of electric killing surge...
Some people will live or die by paper.
 
After religiously subscribing to Jepps and later NOS for decades, I migrated to GTN (no plates) plus two tablets (running Garmin Pilot Android) after I got the GTN, and never looked back. As a throw back to the old days, before every flight I print out the PDF approach plates (for origin, destination and alternate) on 8.5"x11" paper (double sided), and use those on my kneeboard as a backup to the tablets and panel. I find that combination ideal, since the paper plate is big, clear, always there, and markable. I keep the geo-referenced plate open on at least one of my yoke mounted tablets during the approach, easy to correlate to the paper version on my lap.
I don't carry any paper enroutes or sectionals any more.
 
TheGolfPilot said:
I have plates in the GTN. Plates on my Ipad and plates on my iphone.
I also have the plates downloaded in two different pieces of software on my Ipad and Iphone just incase Foreflight takes a dump for whatever reason.
I talked to an old guy the other day who swore that that was an awful idea, nothing replaces paper. And started a rant about power surges from the sun or something like that. The odds of a power surge from the sun putting out ALL of my electronics is way lower than his odds of dropping the plate beneath his seat....
Not to mention. None of those paper approach plates will work if the sun has some kind of electric killing surge...
Some people will live or die by paper.
Click to expand...
Take any subject you want. True believers will make up the most incredible scenarios to prove their point.

But in this case, he's absolutely right. In the event of that electrical equipment killing surge, when you are in absolute terror in IMC with no ability to get a nav signal to anywhere, paper definitely has superiority over an iPad.
 
luvflyin said:
The biggest problem I have is cockpit organization.

Being a renter I have to bring everything with me and set up in airplanes that don't have clips, mounts and other gadgets.
Click to expand...
Background; I was trained and did my initial IFR work in a Maule with paper sans AP. Got quite comfortable with a system of organization that allowed me to fly single pilot while managing the pile of paper and books. Only problem was my mechanic at annual time complaining about all the golf pencils dropped in the bilge.

I then built an RV10 and made some effort to make it iPad friendly and paperless. Mounting the iPad so that it's easier to reference than any map or plate immediately relegates the paper to the recycle bin. Setting up a personal airplane makes things easier. Setting up an experimental plane makes it even easier. The only writing is done on FF's scratchpad with a stylus.

I'd say there are 2 main factors in going from paper to something like FF.
  1. Comfortable and effective mounting of the tablet
  2. Proficiency with the software (Foreflight in my case)
There are a lot of features in the iPad/Foreflight package. It's worth training on it rigorously.
 
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