CommercialAviator

I'm thinking the same way, actually. On the other hand you'll never know what's going on inside the mind of another person. Even if you know someone for years. Just think about NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak to see how a person with a decent life and career can change mentally... We are living in a world these days in which nothing seems impossible anymore.

With reference to latest news, the airplane allegedly was seen by several inhabitants of the Maldives, flying "unusually" low. It was seen on March 8 at around 06:15 a.m. local time. I checked the time of sunrise for the Maldives on that day, which was 06:14 a.m.. So this report might be true, especially when we consider that the airplane was still flying by that time with reference to news. Meanwhile the theory by Keith Ledgerwood http://mh370shadow.com/post/79838944823/did-malaysian-airlines-370-disappear-using-sia68-sq68 has been contradicted http://www.businessinsider.com/pilots-react-to-the-most-elaborate-malaysia-370-weve-heard-yet-2014-3 I personally have a very, very bad feeling. If I consider all informations we got so far, I think it was a pilot suicide: he likely killed the first officer first, made sure that the airplane will be very hard to track, killed all passengers and the cabin crew by hypoxia (explains the climb to FL 450) and then flew above the indian ocean until the airplane ran out of fuel. I can't imagine it was a hijacking due to a certain cargo. Because the airplane needs to land at a suitable airport and that unnoticed. You need a certain infrastructure for that, and some people behind it. So the only thing that comes to my mind is suicide. Everything else just makes no sense to me.

Boeing 737 (any). Followed by the T7.

I doubt that the new CEO will have any influence on flight simulation software by Microsoft. They're neither able, nor willing to invest into a new MS FS project, which we already could see in case of MS Flight and by closure of the ACES studio. These days the quality of games is declining in general, in my point of view. Everything has to be easy, for the casual gamer. A certain amount of intelligence and skill is no requirement anymore for publishers (they want easy money - products for the masses). And flight simulation seems just "too elaborate" for publishers like MS, i.e. not worthy development. They even failed to realize that MS Flight will become an epic fail even before it was released.

Hi :smile: Something I often think about is the difference between modern glass cockpits (737 NG or A320 for example) vs. the old, analogue cockpits (737-200 or A300). I can only judge from a flight-simulator-point of view. But I always think that modern cockpits aren't really more comfortable and less stressful. In an old cockpit, which included a flight engineer, you didn't have to worry about all the systems stuff as a pilot. That was part of the flight engineer, who mostly had more detailed knowledge about the plane than some pilots have today. You just had to calculate the flight performance yourself (without a FMC), insert waypoints into the INS, and that's it. Of course you had to fly the departures and arrivals mostly manually. But even this seems less stressful to me, compared to all the stuff regarding navigation displays and flight management computers, which have to be set and monitored. What I mean is that these days you have to know a lot more details and you have to deal with a lot more systems and computer stuff. Flight managament computers and navigation displays are way more complex in combination with modern auto pilots than an INS and a HSI for example. And you have to deal with all the systems stuff as well. Just think about an Airbus A320 or even A380. Reading an aircraft manual of an A320 is a big difference in comparison to a manual of a 737-200. So, how exactly are modern glass cockpits really more advantageous? What do you think? PS: I personally also think that the old cockpits look more beautiful while modern glass cockpits are somehow boring. But that's a matter of taste. Best Regards

I'm quite happy indeed. I got my tablet yesterday and it's amazing. The first thing I did after I was familiar with the tablet, was to copy the PMDG 737NGX manual and a few Jeppesen charts to it. It's great how comfortable it is to adjust the size as desired. And especially how crystal clear the charts look, no matter how much you zoom in. It's definitely superior to plain paper in every respect. I wouldn't be surprised if one doesn't find paper in most cockpits anymore in the future... I'll have a look at Dropbox. But I think PilotWxChartJr doesn't make sense in my case, since it only coveres the US from what I have seen so far.

Well, I almost was going to order the iPad Air yesterday... But than I thought that I might have a look at other tablet PCs as well. I came across the Acer Iconia series and I figured out that the A3-A10 suits my purposes as well, while it costs only 230 Euro / 315 USD. Of course it's not an Apple, it doesn't have a retina display and there are some other significant differences in terms of display quality, cpu power etc. But one can connect much more peripherals to the A3-A10 (especially micro SD memory cards). So from a beginners point of view and taking the budget into account also, I thought that the A3-A10 might be a good beginning in my case. I really appreciate all your suggestions. Thanks a lot. I still might buy an iPad Air later this year, since I really liked what I read and saw in videos so far. But for reading aviation manuals and documents for the main part I think the Acer also will do it for now.

Thanks for all the information so far. Dropbox looks interesting. Foreflight as well, but I only fly in Europe, so it doesn't make sense yet in my case. It might change in future once I get the PMDG 777. But I don't know when this will be. Long haul is a different business even on PC. And I'm still busy with planning and flying routes in Europe with my 737 NGX. I still don't know whether to buy the iPad 2 or 3 (it was typo in post 3, i.e. not iPad mini and 2 but iPad 2 and 3). I might make a decision tomorrow.

Okay, thanks sgreen91. I already was thinking about the iPad mini, but now I hover between iPad mini and iPad2...

Hi there! I'm registered in this forum since last summer, but this is my first post. I hope I'm posting in the right section regarding my topic/question... Well, since the iPad obviously became a useful tool in real world aviation during recent years, I thought it also might be a very nice tool for PC flight simulation. I'm really a hardcore flight simulator enthusiast and a lot of my spare time goes on flight simulation (rather than on girls :lol:). Currently I'm flying the B737-700/800 by PMDG for MS FSX on a relatively professional basis. So far I used to print all my stuff, which doesn't only include maps and charts but also entire operating manuals. But I'm tired of spending a lot of money on ink and paper for printing everything. Especially charts and flight plans on a regular basis, which easily can be up to 50 pages and more, depending on the route. Not to mention thick folders in my shelf and in my pilot's case below the desk. So I just want to ask if someone here uses an iPad for PC flight simulation (for flight plans, checklists, charts etc...), and if it would be a useful investment. I have no clue of iPads yet (I never bought anything from Apple so far). And would an iPad2 do the job just as an iPad3? Thanks in advance, and best regards!