As Alaska Airlines becomes the first airline to ditch traditional flight manuals in favor of the Apple iPad, the Federal Aviation Administration is revising its rules to account for the rising popularity of tablets.
The agency, like the airlines, is catching up with the times to establish guidelines for the use and certification of the devices in cockpits. The most recent advisory regarding the use of “electronic flight bags and computing devices” dates to 2003, and a draft proposal released last month addresses recent advances in consumer electronics. By allowing pilots to use Apple’s iPad as a primary source of information, the FAA is acknowledging the potential for the rapidly expanding new class of consumer tablets to become avionics instruments.
Alaska Airlines’ decision to embrace the Apple iPad follows a similar move by Executive Jet Management, a charter company that replaced traditional charts with an iPad app earlier this year. The airline has long sought an alternative to the 25 pounds or more of charts and manuals pilots must lug aboard each flight. Easing the load on pilot’s backs is only one goal of embracing paperless cockpits.
“It solves this problem that we always thought we needed to solve — information management,” Jim Freeman, an Alaska Airlines pilot and the airline’s director of flight standards, told Wired.com.
Electronic flight bags and portable electronic devices have been around for years, and even off-the-shelf laptops are widely used in cockpits. But nothing has provided the ease of use and access to information that pilots sought, Freeman said. Alaska Airlines has “closets full of first-generation Sony e-readers, second-generation Sony e-readers, Kindles and netbooks,” he said, but none delivered on the promise of a paperless cockpit. Then came the iPad.
“You’re not using a computer, you’re managing information” he said of the device. “That is what we’ve been waiting for.”
Freeman said it meets the airline’s requirement. It is small. It is fast. It is reliable. The high-resolution screen, the operating system and user interface sealed the deal.
Alaska Airlines went into high gear to get them into the cockpit. Other airlines, vendors and the FAA are moving equally fast, because everyone sees the iPad’s potential.
“This has shifted the paradigm,” Freeman said.
Executive Jet is using the iPad as an alternative to paper navigation charts. Alaska Airlines is replacing aircraft manuals and various corporate manuals and other documents, and hopes to use the iPad in place of navigational charts in the coming year. But it remains to be seen how many airlines follow Alaska’s lead, because the iPad, despite its popularity, is still new, said Kevin Hiatt of the Flight Safety Foundation.
“Certainly the evolution of electronics on the flight deck will continue,” he said. “The iPad may be a part of that, but just how it will be used is the question.”
One question raised by the airline and the FAA is cockpit distractions. After two pilots with Northwest Airlines famously overflew their destination because they were paying more attention to a laptop than their jobs, cockpit distractions are a major concern for airlines.
Alaska Airlines staff said part of its evaluation included observing how the iPad might interfere with pilots’ duties. The process is ongoing, and the Airline has adopted several rules including a requirement that only one pilot use an iPad at any given time.
Aviation technology consultant Hans Weber noted that advances in cockpit electronics follow the same trends seen in consumer electronics. There’s always something new, and the industry is enamored with the iPad for the same reason consumers are.
“We value the better interface between the computer and us,” Weber said. “That’s one very important aspect the iPad provides.”
Alaska Airlines’ use of the iPad is somewhat limited for now. They cannot be used below 10,000 feet, and pilots must still carry their paper manuals in the cockpit, but that will change next month as the airline begins phasing out traditional manuals.
“We’re in parallel run time right now,” Freeman said. “Then we’ll start removing paper [from the cockpit].”
The FAA considers the iPad, as currently used, a Class 1 EFB device, which means it is a consumer, off the shelf type device not physically mounted to the cockpit. Any applications running on it are approved as Type A software, meaning they are not used for critical phases of flight like takeoff or landing. But that almost certainly will change and the airline hopes to integrate them into the cockpit and make them a Class 2 device. The FAA approval process is ongoing, and Alaska hopes to see the iPad approved for use throughout all phases of flight within the next year. This would eventually include real time updates, but more interference testing will be required before connectivity will be allowed.
The FAA is still getting up to speed on the iPad and other tablets and how they might be incorporated into the cockpit. Guidelines regarding the use and certification of electronic devices in the cockpit (.pdf) were recently revised. The FAA is soliciting comments on the proposal through July 13.
Alaska began evaluating the iPad about a year ago and spent last summer and fall refining its use and developing apps to suit pilots’ needs. Company flight instructors and check airmen started testing the gadgets in December, and line pilots began receiving them last month. About 85 percent of the company’s 1,300 pilots now have an iPad.
In the coming months the airline hopes to remove several manuals from the cockpit, including the flight handbook, flight-operations manual, systems handbook, Alaska Airlines enroute guides and the minimum equipment list. The iPad also will allow pilots to carry other manuals and information they haven’t typically carried aboard including the Federal Aviation Regulations/Aeronautical Information Manual. Although such information is not necessary for flight, there is an added convenience to having it on board. Paper versions of emergency procedures and various quick reference guides will remain in the cockpit.
Beyond replacing flight manuals and navigation charts, the airline plans to use iPads to keep track of maintenance. Alaska Airlines wants to eliminate more than 2.4 million pieces of paper, once the device is in full use.
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