A real novel idea, and one that for all intents and purposes makes sense,
except for a few things.

I would HOPE that during this test phase, they would plan to have a dual
system running, where the regularly updated paper documents would continue
to remain available in the cockpit until they have had a 100% success rate
with the digital counterpart they are using.  I can't think of many
situations that have resulted in a clean and seamless immediate cutover form
paper to digital without some reliance on the ability to access the hard
copy information during deployment of digital.

Big fan of "everything iDevice" here, but the iPad to iPad 2 and now iPad3
pending has been a rather rapid morphing and it has not been without some
challenges.  I know a number of people that have them and use them for both
purely pleasure and purely business purposes, and some that use them in dual
environments.  EVERY ONE of these users has had their device 'freeze' on
multiple occasions and in most cases, a requirement to reset or reboot the
device.  Depending on the severity of the incident, these instances take
anywhere from 5 minutes to over an hour to recover and begin using the
device again.  

If it's being used by someone flying a plane I'm a passenger on and they
have  a need to access critical information, I wouldn't be too happy about
the 5 minute scenario, much less the hour plus.  Also given the intricate
nature of some of these applications and detailed content, I'm assuming
these are relatively large files and potentially proprietary applications-
and while a good amount of the information may be able to be stored locally,
there would likely be reliance on a lot of it being stored in a 'cloud type'
environment. 

Anyone who has had experience with airline WiFi connections knows it's not
bad, and getting better, but it's not super.  I don't know that there is any
plan for the connection from the cockpit to be a dedicated one, or if it
would be using the same system any/all passengers might be using, but this
could be a problem when it comes to access large files, downloading them to
a device, then opening and using them during heavy storm activity or other
emergency situations. 

Lastly, there is a reason that people who own Kindles, Sony eReaders, Nooks
and other devices of this type have not given them up, even if they DO get
an iPad- the screen is not the best for reading text from in bright or
direct sunlight, and overhead lights reflect and/or create glare off the
screens as well. 

I know they mention ergonomic issues with lifting the 40 pound case of
information over the seats, but the new issue may end up being the lack of
technical training and the extensive learning curve for accessing
information, updates, technically supporting the devices, impacts to
eyesight, etc etc etc... 

It's progress, but it doesn't come without a cost of challenges and in my
mind, safety first is the biggest concern for airlines. 

Larry
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