Here are a couple of issues I have had with my iPad Mini/Stratus2/ForeFlight combo in my 320.
First: the iPad can be hard to read in many light conditions, especially when mounted as a kneeboard.
Second: regardless of outside air temps, the iPad has over heated and shut down when in direct sunlight.
To address these issues, I have purchased some portable sun shades to knock out direct sunlight. I also still use the basic Sporty's kneeboard, but I have put some Popsicle sticks under the iPad to allow air to circulate and keep the unit cool. I have not had the unit shut down for overheat since I have done these two things.
For some reason I ended up with 2 Sporty's double USB-cigaret lighter adapters. This arrangement allowed me to run both the iPad and Status from ship's power. I liked the idea of starting with a fresh, full charge if i had an alternator problem. Electrically this worked very well, both iPad and Stratus would slowly charge or remain fully charged. It took quite awhile, but with the help of a friend, we determined that both Sporty's cigaret adapters were causing so much electrical noise that they were making the radios unusable. Changing brands of adapter fixed that problem.
A final note on redundancy: I have the Status software on my iPhone 4S. The 4S is about the same size as the Attitude Indicator. With a old phone case and some discrete Velcro, I have a backup attitude in the event of a vacuum system failure that fits right over the instrument.
Glenn N5ZQ 25 hours LNC2 10K+ total
good idea. a variant is to have foreflight on your iphone too. Along the recharge path, you can get a battery to plug the ipad into from Sporty's. Some people are now advertising 28V -> USB cigarette lighter chargers also.
I'm not a fan of big lead/acid batteries on my side of the firewall. Had a friend get smoked out in a T210 from a battery gone wild. He made it but it wasn't fun.
Colyn On Apr 14, 2014, at 1:04 PM, PETER WILLIAMS wrote: hi there
DO YOU RELY ON AN ipad FOR NAVIGATION?
i do, and on long trips with hard IFR at the end of the trip.
i keep in the plane a charged 12volt Car Starting Battery with a provision for using a cigarette plug to charge the ipad.
i have found that i can more or less maintain the ipad charge; but not increase the ipad charge.
Thus, while addressing this problem, i had had an epiphany; why not a second ipad.
i use the ipad for approach plates and VFR charts and most IFR plates.
Note that much of my flying is on the east coast, from New England to the bottom of Florida and i retain 2 Charts, NE SE East Coast Jepp chart subscription.
but if i had a ipad failure, i would have an increased load at a time that the work load was already increasing.
Yes, i can get information from the GNS 530. but why not have redundancy.
THINK OF IT THIS WAY:
we build our airplanes with redundant NavComs because we assume that having a back up is a safety feature
ergo,
I HAVE PURCHASED A SECOND IPAD.
it will stay charged and powered down as a backup in case of a failure or a low battery condition.
peter
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