Columbia’s version of the Avidyne Entegra accommodates plates in readable, full view.

by Jeff Van West

We’ve been hearing about—and writing about—the paperless cockpit for most of the last half decade and although the idea resonates, it’s frustratingly unrealized. Unless you happen to own or plan to buy an airplane from Columbia Aircraft, which, at long last, has tamed the beast and made the flight library a more workable if not a perfect concept.

Back in our August 2005 issue, we reported on our test flight of two solutions for viewing Jepp charts on an MFD (Electronic Flight Library: Nice Idea, Needs Work, August 2005, Aviation Consumer.) Our biggest quibble with the system was that neither the Garmin MX20 in our Mooney nor the…