Jumpseat: My New Antique

Les Abend

Friday, April 05, 2013 at 10:22 PM ET

Verified

** The iPad: an FAA-approved addition to the
777 cockpit.**

Key Takeaways:

An airline successfully transitioned from cumbersome paper flight manuals and charts to Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) using iPads, driven by pilot initiatives seeking convenience and efficiency.
The adoption involved rigorous FAA approval processes, extensive testing for device reliability and operational integration, and innovative, cost-effective solutions like secure iPad mounts.
This digitalization brought significant benefits, including substantial cost savings from eliminating paper revisions, reduced fuel consumption due to lighter flight bags, and improved pilot efficiency and access to information during all flight phases.
The airline became the first to receive FAA approval for using iPads in all phases of flight, marking a pioneering achievement in aviation technology adoption.

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I gazed at the pile of Jepp binders that were scattered across my desk: United States, Europe, Latin America, Pacific, Far East, 777 ops manual, company manual. I sighed with a wary smile.

Was it possible that I would never again have to clack open metal rings and replace pages upon pages of approach plates with new revisions? Would I never again be faced with the acrobatic juggling act of opening the last index and spilling out the binder’s entire contents?