Leave your iPad at home

I do a lot of training for pilots that are looking to transition to a Bonanza or Baron.  Often times, the transition is from smaller aircraft that may not be in the high-performance or complex category, but sometimes it will be a lateral move.  For most pilots, the transition is not very complicated - a review of the systems, differences between their old aircraft, and the new one, and flight time can get the pilot up to speed.

It always concerns me when the first 10 minutes of the first flight with a pilot turns into working on mounting the iPad, and routing the wires.  I love the iPad, and I absolutely love ForeFlight and some of the other apps out there for the Android.  Its hard to believe the capability we get as pilots for such a cheap price, but it has its place.


The first flight in the Bonanza will be focused on pre-flight, ground operations, take-off, climb, air-work, cruise considerations, descent, pattern entry, and landings.  Notice, there will be nothing that involves the iPad, and it quite frankly just gets in the way and acts as a distraction.  I'd much rather not have it installed on the yoke for the first flight.  You will need to get acclimated with switch location, instrument indications and gear indicators that may become hidden with most iPad mounts.

The only time an iPad in the cockpit makes sense for initial check out is if there is a Stratus unit available.  Ill have my iPad with me, and will be connecting to your Stratus, or Stratusx/Flightbox, so you still don't need to worry about the iPad until we start doing instrument procedures, or cross countries.

I do understand the excitement - I really do. Owning your first Bonanza is an amazing experience, and I get that you want to get all of the goodies installed in the aircraft.  Ultimately, you will want to get the installation all squared away, but for the first flight, just know - it will be mostly useless.