Professional Pilot, October 2019

While not specifically designed for aviation Windy is an app with a graphical display of current and forecast up to 240 hours ahead wind speeds and directions that can help with flight planning PROFESSIONAL PILOT October 2019 77 Convenience of PEDs The intuitive nature of capacitive touch screens and operating system layouts in portable electronic devices PEDs also transformed aviation by drastically reducing the time needed for search and retrieval of essential information from checklists to radio frequencies for the alternate airport Instead of thumbing through a 200 page ring binder a pilot could open a relevant app tap the search icon and within a few keystrokes the app would return the sought after information Intelligent autocompletion has reduced the search times even further listing possible results before finishing typing in a query In a dynamic environment such as a cockpit during an approach into a busy major airport in heavy rain anything that can shave a few seconds off a task that distracts from flying the plane is more than welcome Where once even the most experienced pilot might take a minute to make a calculation on their manual E 6B an E 6B app can now spit out the desired answer in just a few seconds Whats more many apps now combine features that once were limited to expensive avionics such as moving maps 3 D synthetic terrain and weather radar Although most pilots would be reluctant to rely on such apps over their dedicated and trusty panel avionics these apps are a useful backup or a primary if the cockpit lacks such avionics In many cases because PEDs are easily upgraded for a few hundred dollars and software is frequently updated they have become the go to for many features that are too complicated or cumbersome to use easily on expensive hard wired avionics Pilots are finding a myriad of uses for their tablets Apps exist for everything from weight and balance to filing flight plans and even tracking flights for later review So naturally there are a wide variety of apps that bring current and forecast weather right to the pilots fingers Some of these are stand alone weather apps while others are designed specifically for aviation and integrate weather information into the features they offer Given the relative ease with which an app can be developed by a competent programmer it is no surprise that many air carriers and charter operators have developed their own bespoke programs for their pilots However such apps are tailored to the needs of those companys operations and are generally only available to the companys pilots Most pilots professional and recreational will rely on the many off the shelf apps available in Google Play for Android devices or Apple App Store for iOS gadgets Electronic flight bags Electronic flight bags EFBs are a class of app that seek to replace most if not every aspect of what pilots used to do with paper and a calculator and then some This includes functions historically handled by panel mounted avionics Various screens will calculate weight and balance perform route planning and even let you fill in and file your flight plan entirely electronically A big part of these EFBs is their access to weather both in terms of preflight planning and in flight updates There are several popular EFB apps available to pilots including FlyQ EFB Appareo Electronic Flight Bag Garmin Pilot ForeFlight Mobile EFB and AOPA GO While they all differ in the way the information is displayed and some offer more features than others all these apps and routing There are dozens of apps that will provide near real time displays of ground based radar information Radarscope includes a variety of radar imagery from around the world as well as offering pro subscriptions that include features such as lightning strikes