REFLECTOR: E-readers as Electronic Flight Bags

Fri Nov 13 09:54:26 CST 2009

What I found so far on electronic flight bags:

I ran a question both on the GNS480 forum and the Velocity builders forum.
If some of what I say here is a repeat, it is because I am writing this note
in duplicate to both groups.  So you know I have no pony in this race and
don't sell anything.  

ON THE KINDLE DX VS THE SONY

The Kindle has the best and most effective view.  If you go to Amazon.com
and look at the DX reviews you will see it get dinged for the screen
breaking.  Maybe that is from being flexed in the computer bag with other
paraphernalia like chargers and the like.  That gripe worries me, since I
don't want something I have to baby.  Also Amazon customers complain that
the company says tough luck and blames you for having abused the equipment.
It is the most readable by far over the Sony 505/600 due to screen size.
Size for me is a good and a bad.  I have a side sick in a center console and
so my lap is free.  I have experimented with lap trays.  Finding a place for
so big a device that is maybe fragile is going to be hard for me with my
setup.  I don't want it to block panel view, yet it has to be close enuf to
read.  I use Air Chart system flip plates that I tailor myself for each
trip, and I am happy with that solution.  I see this E-thing as a means to
pull up a divert field chart in a hurry and not have to carry tons of
approach plates on long XC flights.  I have a 200TAS bird and go from NH to
CO to FL and all points inbetween.   That is why my interest in this.  

The size of the Sony would be more appropriate to cramped quarters, but at
the sacrifice to font size or sliding the screen view around.  I also only
have one hand to work with the thing if the autopilot is off.  The Kindle
has no interior lighting so you have shine a cockpit light on it to read at
night.  Same as with paper charts.  Another big gripe is that it shuts down
on its own after 10 mins.or say about the Missed Appr point.  The Sony has
user control over pwr saving profiles.  The Kindle doesn't read PDF files
like other devices can.  You have to research that on your own about methods
for page access.  I did read in one Geek forum on e-readers.  It said there
that they all slow down when you add memory devices to hold these giant NACO
files.  This is because the op systems goes into an internal compression
routine to read thru big files.  

Regards the Sony line:  when E-chrts first came along the Sony 505 was the
device of choice.  That appears to be upstaged by the 600.  It has a few
extra features and would be my likely choice due to size limitations I have
to deal with and my concern about only having one hand free.  The Sony is
dinged for having a glare problem.  Also these early devices were 8 shades
of grey.  Now the new stuff is coming out with 16 shades of gray.   I talked
with a fellow from one website cust serv.  He had no experience w/ the 600.
He said to go with the 505 over the 700 for nite ops due its lighting
feature left the center of the screen hard to read.  An overhead light would
fix this.  I don't fly much at night myself.  

ON DOING NOTHING

On one of the forums, a guy wrote and said he was holding off altogether on
this.  I like that advice.  I think these things are changing fast.
E-readers may become like cell/ipod for R&D going into  multiple purposes
and features.  

WHAT I THINK

I have a Dell mini computer with 1 gig in ram and an 8 gig solid state
drive.  The thing measures 9"x7" and is just an off the shelf mini lap top.
I went to Doug Ranz's site http://dranz.readyhosting.com/ and he suggested
about Foxit Reader for PDFs.    I use that.  Also I haven't sent him any
donations, but I intend too.  I think what he did here was great.  Anyway I
need to disable more junk off my bootup routine like webcam and internet etc
and use it as a dedicated Electronic Flight bag.  It is just as fast or
better than anything on the market for page call it.  It is not sunlight
readable.    I set the thing up in the blocks and just close the lid.   When
I need it, I open and lid and it comes alive right now.  (1 second)  If I am
on the desired airport,  the pages are accessible bango right now with the
page-up and page-down keys.  If I worried about batt life, I have a cig
lighter outlet and you can get a small 10 amp max transformer rectifier with
110v outlets and I stick it in a corner somewhere.  Also this thing is going
to be a cumbersome to use, and I haven't used it any in actually practice.
(I'll get back on that.)   I am going to wait at least across the winter
months before I invest in anything better.   

Buzz, here are my access times.  My Dell Mini computer is on batt power.  It
has only a solid state drive to it:  From dead off to fully booted and Foxit
reader loaded and page displayed was 3.5 mins.  Then I have to configure the
page view within Foxit to rotate it 90 degrees and get it to full screen,
but it stays that way until you hit escape.  After escape, the thing
defaults back to displaying the bookmarks and with the page still properly
rotated.  Once the page view is set, it displays all pages from the first CT
plate to the last WV plate and fast as I can press the keys.  I see the
whole plate and it measures 6.5" by 4.5"  Actually screen size is 7.5 x 4.5
or 8.8" measured diagonally.  

Thank you to everybody for all the ideas and info access.  These forums are
priceless!

Regards,

Terry Miles

From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Chris Barber
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 14:23
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: E-readers as Electronic Flight Bags

I do not think I have seen it mentioned yet, but Aviation Consumer Magazine
did an article on this exact topic a couple of moths back.  Here is the
link, but you have to subscribe to read the entire article.

http://www.aviationconsumer.com/issues/39_8/accessories/5929-1.html

All the best,

Chris Barber

Houston

  _____  

From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On Behalf Of
nmflyer1 at aol.com [nmflyer1 at aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 10:19 AM
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: E-readers as Electronic Flight Bags

It is a fantastic looking display. Perhaps some experimenting with some sort
of "Book Light" would give satisfactory results. 

Kurt 

I don't think that the electronic ink displays are able to be back-lit- they
use a different technology than LED and the screen is not translucent- maybe
they will develop something in the near future for that, but for now it is a
very clear, no flicker super high contrast display.

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