EFB Survey - Embry-Riddle (and drawing for $100)

[techaut]

​Research Survey Request

Hi! I'm an EAA member, pilot, and 172S owner in Florida. I'm completing a Ph.D. in Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I'd appreciate it if you can take about 5 minutes to complete a survey about general aviation pilot decisions regarding their use or non-use of electronic flight bags (EFBs).

The title of the research is General Aviation Pilot Acceptance and Adoption of Electronic Flight Bag Technology, and I'll publish the results in a dissertation by midsummer.

The qualifications for the survey are minimal - if you are you a pilot and have flown in general aviation (14 CFR § 91) in the past year, you can fill out the survey. At the end, you'll have a chance to enter a drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card. I'll be mailing it to some lucky winner by March.

The question I'm investigating is why some general aviation pilots choose to use EFBs, and others choose not to use EFBs during their flight operations. I’m interested in the opinions of pilots that use EFBs as well as those pilots that do not use EFBs.

Please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/efb5 to get started!

Questions? Contact me at techaut@my.erau.edu, or Dr. Steven Hampton at hamptons@erau.edu.

[cwilliamrose]

I've never heard of an EFB until now and I'm not real clear on why I'd use one. Hopefully others here are better informed than I am. Good luck with your survey.

[Mayhemxpc]

I took the survey. I offer some comments:
- You never ask WHY a pilot may choose to use an EFB or what features he thinks are important.
- Pilots are generally independent don't care what other people think about what they use (I worry about the ones that do). Several questions about the effect of people who influence you may not give you the information you think it will. (Teaching the FAA's "5 dangerous traits" is a lot of fun to a room full of people who exhibit at least four of them most of the time -- often three at the same time.)
- Your questions about pre-and post flight combine a lot of activities. So, for example, although I do not use the EFB for checklists, I may sometimes it for a taxi diagram or to contact the FBO to request fuel on landing. You might think about separating out the various pre-and post flight functions.

Always happy to help!

[Frank Giger]

LOL, what was once considered exotic and cutting edge is a 100 dollar tablet with iFly on it.

[martymayes]

some questions seemed repetitive

[techaut]

Thank you to everyone that has taken the survey. I appreciate it. The survey may seem repetitive, but that's an intentional part of the research design, and there is actually a method to the madness!

Frank Giger is right - EFBs used to be the stuff of science fiction movies, but are now a technology that has become essential for many pilots. Just wait to you see what's next! Research is ongoing to increase EFB capability. I read about one effort to bring two-way text capability to EFBs, called Controller-Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC). Once reserved for those flying heavy metal, it may come to us in GA. Imagine how much less congested the radio frequencies would be if GA pilots got their IFR clearance without keying the microphone, or could negotiate a routing change with ATC with crystal clarity of the names of fixes and routing elements. But as with any innovation, the effects of one change will need to be fully evaluated. For example, listening to pilots ahead of me discuss weather related deviations helps my situation awareness, and if that communication were digital, we would lose that source of input.

[rwanttaja]

I have an EFP...an Exterior Flight Pocket on my leather coat, that carries all my essential aviation supplies. Beeman's gum, a St. Christopher's medal, a harmonica....

Ron "What is this 'electricity' of which you speak?" Wanttaja

[Bill Greenwood]

I did your survey or tried to but, I have no idea how to "paste the url to another browser source". I bet that is really a kick for those who are up on it. Is it more fun than flying?

[champ driver]

I did your survey too.
In my case it's difficult because I fly 2 planes at complete opposite ends of the spectrum, one for work and the other is a Champ.
In my Champ I don't use any electronics except my handheld radio. I have no use for, and don't even own a GPS or any other EFB type of device, so my answers kind of skew your results one way.
And yes, I found some of your questions repetitive.

[Frank Giger]

In defense of repetitive questions, it's to ensure the question is being answered the same way with different wordings.

It's a standard questionnaire technique that lets the researcher know if he's a knothead. If the same basic question is answered in two completely different ways by a majority of folks, the researcher knows he lost a data point due to inconsistency. It's not on the guy that answered the questions, it's on the guy who came up with them.

Frank "Push Poll" Giger