Ipad Readability in the cockpit

[Anymouse]

I use neither. Instead, I use SkyCharts Pro. It has all the charts, with geo-referenced enroute charts, but not all the frills that you get with WingX or Foreflight. It also only costs $20/year. If this recent fiasco with the FAA and their charting policies causes SkyCharts Pro to go out of business, I'll probably get Foreflight.

As far as memory usage goes, I got the 64G and have plenty right now. Still only have a smattering of my pictures loaded, but all my music is there. With that, my apps, and roughly the eastern half of the country's charts in cache, I'm currently at about half on my storage capacity. Keep in mind that you'll probably find you'll use the iPad for more than just aviation stuff (despite what you say now).

[MickYoumans]

Edgefly, I have the 32 gig iPad 2 with 26 gigs of available memory left. It is loaded with WingX and about 25 other apps. I also have over 100 pictures on it. I do NOT have any movies or vdeo on it. I'm guessing that 70% or more of my flights have been cross country using the internal GPS. I also take my iPad on commercial flights with me and follow the trip on WingX. I recently flew from Augusta to Atlanta to Colorado Springs at 40,000 feet and 450 knots and had no problem with the GPS signal. On the trip I had both WingX and ForeFlight and made a lot of screen captures to compare the two programs. Unfortunately I don't have a place to upload them for you to view. I would recommend getting at least the 32 gig memory to allow for future expansion. I don't think there is any way to expand memory later like you can do on a PC.

[EDGEFLY]

I made my decisions and here they are. First, I went with the iPad 2 w/ 3G and 16 GB of memory. I did not buy an external GPS device and have purchased Wing X Pro for navigation purposes. I also have all of my home laptop info aboard and don't have any storage problem. I am VFR in a Cherokee PA- 28 and have no issue with the built-in GPS. The only usage issue is the screen glare in high light conditions and anticipate that an anti-reflective guard will help with that. The only other comment I have is that I am not someone who stores a lot of music or videos so a new user might want to carefully look at this aspect when sizing their unit.My thanks to everyone who contributed their experience and knowledge to this thread.EDGEFLY

[Wilfred]

I received my Ipad "3" and married it with as 30-day 99-cent trial offer of WingX and turned on the Sky Radar ADS-B receiver. The readability was marginal until I turned the iPAD'S light setting to max, and ALSO set the WingX light intensity to max...except when directly and squarely angled into direct sunlight the readabilith is fine. There are only two ADS-B transmitting units around here....down at the New Mexico northern border, and I flew down there the other day but didn't pick up weather data...suspect it was something I was doing wrong...will try again...the GPS in the Sky Radar worked perfectly.

You might note on the WingX site that they acknowledge there is as problem with the sectional and terrain display in the Ipad 3 due to a 'bug' in the Apple software, as they put it. The two things tend to repeat in vertical strips, but other than that all is fine.

[BruceAir]

My initial PIREP on the iPad3 and the ASA iPad kneeboard (which includes an easel-like prop-up feature) is at my blog.

I haven't tried it yet in the Extra 300L, but I think it will be readable.

[MickYoumans]

For what it's worth, I've found that wearing a dark colored shirt improves readability of my iPad in the cockpit. Last Friday I flew home wearing a yellow shirt. I kept thinking I was having a harder time than usual seeing my iPad. It finally dawned on me that my yellow shirt was reflecting a lot on the screen. Today when I flew to work, as an experiment, I wore a black shirt. It made a very noticable difference to me. YMMV, but I certainly think it may be worth a try if you are fighting screen reflections.

[rosiejerryrosie]

A good observation....I have the same problem with my GPS in my car.

[EDGEFLY]

As I reported earlier, My iPad 2 w/internal GPS, 3G, 16GB and Wire X is satisfying my VFR needs without problem. To ensure that everything was covered, I purchased a cheapo glare shield and installed it. That was a real disaster !!! Fortunately, the vendor refunded my cost of purchase. Although I had been flying with the iPad and experiencing little,if any, difficulty I decided to check out the availability of better solutions. The one I chose, based on Internet research was "invisible SHIELD" by ZAGG. There are different products for each iPad model and you must purchase an anti-Glare product if you desire that benefit. After my first experience, I was somewhat concerned about the installation. Happily, I can report that if you can repair a flat tire or something equally simple and passed 1st grade reading, you should have no problem with this. Better yet, I am astounded by the Anti-Glare performance. The ZAGG product is not cheap ~$30 but, IMHO, well worth it.