| Cheetah Flight Pad |
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Why the Cheetah Flight Pad takes
off from where the iPad ends. |
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Since
the introduction of the iPad over the last year and a half
its uses in aviation has been very popular. Although the
capabilities available in these apps have been around for
more than 10 years, the combination of its size, bright
screen and ease of use has been popular among pilots
primarily for chart reading and preflight planning.
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| But What's Really Important? | |||||||||
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There
can be a lot of confusion when comparing all the options of
different displays but when you stand back and look at the
big picture the bottom line always is, which display offers
the most useful features and reduces your overall workload
the most to increase safety and enjoyment during flight. |
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You need to multitask, why shouldn't your computer ? |
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Your job as pilot certainly
qualifies as multitasking, even more so if you're flying
IFR. The whole point of having a computer in the cockpit is
to minimize your workload and operate as a second set of
eyes like a copilot to maximize your safety margin. This
means at a minimum you need a computer that can multitask.
The iPad has the operating system of the Apple cell phone
(not a standard Apple Computer) what this means is that it
cannot multitask and perform multiple computer operations
simultaneously. It can only do one thing at a time, this is
why they are called apps, they are not full applications.
The Cheetah Flight Pad has a full Windows 7 operating system
and can multitask. This is why I can perform multiple
operations instantly, much faster than the pilot. |
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Why does this matter? |
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The
effect is actually pretty significant, for starters even the
most basic function such as flying with your ipad you will
notice that you can only fly North up, it does not even show
track up. This means that your |
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| Connectivity | |||||||||
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The iPad connectivity for
hardware is based primarily on Bluetooth, which in aircraft
can often be problematic.
Although the Cheetah Flight Pad does have Bluetooth
connectivity it also has |
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What they have in common? |
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Both
the ipad and the Cheetah Flight Pad have virtually identical
displays that are very bright and crisp and similar size.
The Cheetah Flight Pad does have the added advantage of
being nearly an inch less in width which makes it noticeably
easier to place on the yoke mount so you do not have to
spend a lot of time looking down on a kneeboard while you
are trying to fly.
They both have the ability to use Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity
so their access to the Internet (its biggest non-aviation
use by far) is virtually identical. |
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What about ease-of-use?
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Those of you who are familiar with the iPad’s
interface and ease of use will see the layout and interface
on the Flight Cheetah Pad very similar, just with a lot more
functionality. You will see one thing that is very different
though, our virtual house call feature. The way this feature
works is if you are ever stuck with a question you can
contact our customer support on a 7/24 line.
Next, you turn on the virtual house call feature on
your screen which automatically allows us to see what you
are looking at on the screen and we can manually show you
what you need to do within the software. |
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