We get a steady stream of requests for reviews of electronic flight bags (EFBs). In theory, they make sense: all your charts and approach plates in one place and geo-referenced so you can see your exact position, up-to-date airport information at your fingertips and a pre-flight planning tool that becomes the in-flight resource without reentering information. In practice, were in a Dickensian “best of times, worst of times” state where the technology is marginally up to the task and no one has quite nailed the software. All three of the solutions we tested for this article get the job done-approach charts, sectionals, airport information, XM weather, a moving map GPS-its all there. All have touch-sensitive screens (that work with gloves on). All are available as ready-to-fly solutions and meet the FAAs requirements as Class 1 or 2 EFBs. Where they differ is in execution, and thats why no one solution is the right one for everybody. In all three cases, there’s a flight planning program and weve already reviewed those in our January 2010 issue. The three contenders here come from the same companies-Flight Prep, RMS Flitesoft and Seattle Avionics-but now were focusing only on the in-flight modules. Were also looking specifically at the ready-to-fly packages offered by each company. You could roll your own EFB using any of these programs with your computer. There are a couple of global things we can say about all three devices we tested. All have excellent battery life, performing fine on a three-hour flight, but you’ll want to plug them in to ships power for best performance. Direct connections to 12V systems run around $50 and 24V systems are over $100 (using a 24V-to-120V inverter is a cheaper solution). All systems update automatically from the internet. These things all weigh between two and three pounds, which gets heavy in your hand. Yoke and suction mounts can be had for about $60. All three companies have been around for a while with solid user bases and good histories of customer support.
FlightPrep ChartBook
We felt immediately at home with the ChartBook running in its inflight mode. Buttons were big and clearly labeled. The screen is divided into two major sections (upper and lower or right and left depending on portrait or landscape view). One combination might be your flight plan and a sectional chart. The chart would show your aircraft with the option of showing airspeed, altitude and heading as flight tapes or as boxes in the corners. Another combination might be an approach plate and a terrain-awareness page. Either section can be expanded to fill the whole screen with a touch and its only two taps to navigate to a different screens.
The ChartBook plots the aircrafts position on computer-generated moving maps or sectional, low, high or TAC charts of your choosing. These are actual scanned charts that zoom and scroll smoothly. One feature we grew to appreciate was a dedicated “chart” button that flipped us to the chart of our choice no matter what screen we had been viewing a moment