American Airlines sees Apple's iPad preventing pilot back injuries

[onehandle]

By switching from heavy 40-pound flight bags to Apple's iPad, American Airlines expects to address a relatively common issue among commercial airline pilots: back injuries.

Patrick O'Keeffe, vice president of Airline Operations Technology at American Airlines, spoke this week at the TabTimes Tablet Strategy conference in New York, where he revealed that iPads will become available to all of his company's 8,600 pilots by the end of May.

"We've reduced the single biggest source of pilot injuries: carrying those packs," O'Keeffe said during his keynote presentation. "And we are now able to save $1 million in fuel costs and stop printing all the page revisions."

American Airlines first began using Apple's iPad during all phases of flight last year, and is the only carrier in the world with permission to do so. The iPad is currently the only tablet approved by the Federal Aviation Administration as an electronic flight bag.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/05/01/american-airlines-sees-apples-ipad-preventing-pilot-back-injuries

[Logical]

1. LOL, but they are too dangerous for passengers to use. n-t

[baldguy]

2. It would be good for a lower back support. Not much else.

[we can do it]

5. And you know this how?

[Yavin4]

9. The laptop is dying a fast death.

Tablets, and smartphones in particular, are the future.

[baldguy]

10. I'm not down on tablets.

It's Apple that I have no use for.

[we can do it]

13. replied to wrong post

sorry

[Initech]

33. No they're not. And desktop PC's aren't either.

I just bought a new Lenovo. They're not going away anytime soon. Tablets can do a lot but it will take at least a decade or two before the hardware even has a remote chance of catching up in terms of sheer rendering power.

[Yavin4]

34. No. It won't take a decade. Tablets are the present and the future.

Funny. I had a similar conversation with someone back in 1995 about the internet. He too was 100% sure that it would fade away and not be that big of a deal.

[Initech]

35. There's things PCs can do that tablets can't.

It's as simple as that - try running a rendering farm on a bunch of iPads, it can't be done. Try editing a 500MB professional photo on a tablet, can't be done.

[Yavin4]

36. Things change. n/t

[Major Nikon]

24. I've been using the iPad as an EFB for years

It works incredibly well.

[TheMightyFavog]

3. 40 pounds?

What do they carry in those bags? Bricks? A helmet? A shitload of booze from the duty-free store?

[frazzled]

7. Pssst, open the link and you'll see why 40 lbs

It always helps to read the full story

Typical flight bags can weigh up to 40 pounds with thousands of pages of charts and manuals. By switching to the iPad and going digital, American Airlines will cut printing costs and make it easier for pilots to carry those charts.

While only the iPad is allowed for use as an electronic flight bag, American Airlines has also embraced devices running Google Android for other aspects of flight. The company has distributed 16,000 Samsung Galaxy Notes to its crew members, and flight attendants reportedly use the devices to manage data related to food service, seating, and up-to-date gate information.

[Major Nikon]

25. That's how much a complete sets of US IFR charts weigh

[TheMightyFavog]

27. Damn... That's a lot....

[Major Nikon]

28. That's why I went to using the iPad as soon as I could

It also a lot more expensive to use paper charts. For about $75 per year I get almost every chart the FAA publishes. It would cost me several hundred to get the same thing in paper. I also get a lot more capability.

[Earth_First]

4. Hopefully the NOTAMs aren't .pdf's... nt

[we can do it]

6. Why would that be a problem?

[Earth_First]

8. I recall an iPad issue where the entire .pdf wasn't viewable...

The problem has most likely been solved, however I still like to get my "I" digs in when I can...

[we can do it]

15. Ours worked fine (my older phone, too, it still works fine). Some apps are better than others.

[TheMadMonk]

12. Adobe. /nt

[we can do it]

14. Adobe is a brand. Flash is one of their products. Acrobat is one of their products.

Photoshop is one of their products, Illustrator is one of their products.
Acrobat makes pdf files, which work fine on iphone and ipads.

[TheMadMonk]

18. I am fully aware of that. Apparently YOU are not aware that Flash...

...and Acrobat both, have more holes in them than Swiss cheese.

Every time I cold boot my machine (admittedly not that often), security updates to both are invariably waiting.

[we can do it]

19. Your reply did not indicate that. goodbye

[TheMadMonk]

32. And another of the irony impaired. Given the number of times...

...we have been instructed to disable these two Adobe products over the past twelve months, I thought an ironical one word answer would suffice.

[Fumesucker]

11. That pilot's spare tire probably weighs close to 40 lbs

It would help his back immensely if he would get rid of it, I know it did wonders for my back when I lost a bunch of weight.

[tanyev]

16. How does this save $1 million in fuel costs?

I get how it can reduce back injuries and the savings in paper is cool, but they're claiming that there will be measurable fuel savings? I would think 40 lbs on a large passenger plane is a negligible weight.

[onehandle]

17. 8,600 pilots x 300 flights per year x 40 lbs = 103,200,000 lbs less weight to fuel.

This is why they charge extra for excess baggage, and sometimes excess passenger.

The weight adds up.

[tanyev]

21. Wouldn't you routinely have fluctuations greater than 40 lbs on any given flight?

Weight of cargo, weight of passenger baggage, weight of passengers....Granted, the first two are weighed, but passengers and carry-ons are not. (Not yet, anyway)

[onehandle]

22. Yes. And every pound counts. nt

[Major Nikon]

31. A few years ago...

I read that airlines swapped out the stainless steel flatware in 1st class for a lighter metal, just in the interest of saving fuel.

[hedgehog]

20. this also resolves the problem of ensuring that out-of-date manuals aren't

floating around in the system!

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Not really

You can still have out of date charts and manuals.

[Major Nikon]

26. It's much harder to do with EFB

I get an update notice that tells me when I have out of date charts. I simply insure I have a wifi connection, click on update, and within a few minutes everything has been updated. With Jeppesen paper charts that most airline pilots use, they send you updates via snail mail and you have to file each one individually. If you miss one update it could take you months or years to correct, if that same plate doesn't get updated again.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. My hubby, navy A-Nav...would get this with charts

He still did not trust the electronic version. It was an old version that led to a collision.

When we cover fires, have not gotten paper, I'd rather have it. This year will print them. Some of those Topos have not been updated in two decades.

[Major Nikon]

30. The military uses different charts

Most every GA pilot I know who flies IFR on a regular basis is using the iPad for electronic flight bag. I have a backup on my iPhone and as a second backup I print just the approach plates I plan on using. I've been doing this for about 3 years now with zero issues.