Commuting of pilot Kim Cheol-soo of Jean Air is getting lighter. This is because he does not have to carry a black flight bag that he always used to carry with his carrier. Weighing in at 15kg, the flight bag contained a variety of reference documents and manuals of pilots and it was changed to tablet PC from this year.

According to industry sources, on April 18, Jin air decided to use the operating manuals necessary for piloting the aircraft in Apple iPad Air 2 and supplied it to all pilots. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs approved the use of EFB (Electronic Flight Information) by using a tablet PC in the aircraft flight deck, and will be applied from the second half of this year after the trial period. Air Busan is also scheduled to introduce the system from mid-year of this year after completing supply of Apple iPad Air 2.

The iPad has information on hundreds of aviation-related applications, manuals, flight schedules, and updates information in real time. Tablet PCs that are equipped with the Android operating system (OS) are not yet available to airlines because of lack of support for aviation applications.

By now, pilots had to carry manuals with flight instructions, such as the main flight route, the airport-specific landing procedure, and the flight scheduled on that day. Most domestic airlines use flight manuals published by Jebson Co., Ltd, which weighs about 15 kilograms in three or four volumes. In addition, there are more than 3~4 books including flight plan performance manual (FPPM) and aircraft manual (AFM) that weights 15 kg.

An aviation industry expert explained, ‘We had to update Boeing`s manual, which accounts for the largest volume and weight of manuals, several times a month. There is an advantage that it can improve safety by reducing human error by using the iPad.’

Global airlines have already been using electronic manuals on their tablet PCs. The US Federal Aviation Administration officially licensed the iPad to flight pilots instead of paper manuals for the cockpit as of 13 December 2011. After Alaska Airlines replaced its pilot manual with the iPad for the first time as an airline, American Airlines also supplied the pilots to check all manuals and documents on their mobile devices. Previously, Delta Air Lines and Japan`s Peach Airlines also switched to tablet PC electronic manuals.

By Kim Eun silverkim@


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