The FAA Blinked

The battle has raged a long time between useful, inexpensive, portable, non-certified devices and panel-mount certified instrumentation. In practice, weve long used non-certified portables for navigation and we havent been falling out of sky in swarms.

Editorial Staff

Thursday, July 31, 2014 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A long-standing divide between useful, inexpensive non-certified portable devices and expensive certified panel-mount avionics is narrowing, with portables historically limited to advisory use despite their advanced capabilities.
This distinction is changing with innovations like Aspen's Connected Gateway, which allows non-certified tablets (e.g., iPads) to send flight data (like routes and frequencies) to certified panel-mount systems, requiring pilot manual acceptance.
This development signals a future of increased integration and bi-directional data exchange between portables and certified avionics, enhancing cockpit capabilities and efficiency while critical flight functions remain within certified systems.

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The battle has raged a long time between useful, inexpensive, portable, non-certified devices and panel-mount certified instrumentation. In practice, we’ve long used non-certified portables for navigation and we haven’t been falling out of sky in swarms.

Officially, our non-certified portables are for advisory and supplementary use only. In reality, though, if you don’t have a GPS in your panel allowing you to fly direct for hundreds of miles, you can still use a portable GPS. To be legal, you get a heading and “direct when able.” It’s an official wink and a nod, and it works.