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Pilot’s Discretion: Taxi at Large Airports Like a Pro

An iPad can be a pilot's best friend during one of the most confusing parts of any flight: after landing at a busy, unfamiliar airport. Jerry Pomales
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The iPad and its aviation apps are a major technological advancement, significantly enhancing pilot safety and situational awareness in the cockpit, particularly over the last two decades.
  • A key area of improvement is the often-stressful taxiing phase of flight, where the iPad provides real-time location tracking on geo-referenced airport diagrams, greatly improving surface navigation.
  • These apps further boost ground situational awareness through features such as integrated NOTAMs, digital chart annotations, runway verification tools, and automated safety alerts to minimize head-down time and reduce risks.
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Over the course of your flying career you’ll likely experience several technological advances that will change the way you fly. In the early years of aviation, these came in the form of new airframe design and propulsion innovations, such as the transition from tailwheel to tricycle landing gear and turbojet engines. Next came the development of sophisticated avionics, providing pilots with the HSI, loran and RNAV direct-to navigation. The biggest leap in this category took place in the mid-1990s, when GPS was opened up for civilian use, unlocking the modern form of navigation that we all depend on today.

Bret Koebbe

Bret Koebbe is a flight instructor and oversees the production of pilot-training courses and mobile apps for Sporty’s Pilot Shop. He flies for fun in a 1963 Piper Aztec and professionally in a Cessna Citation.

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