ARINC plans to extend iPad app functionality

ARINC Direct's iPad app, which was launched at NBAA last autumn, is to be enhanced to include a moving map display, runway analysis and further flight planning tools in future editions.
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The app, which is available to ARINC Direct customers on the Apple store, has now been downloaded “thousands of times” and is the result of a very active team of beta developers who are keen to extend its usefulness in the cockpit.
 
The ARINC app enables access to flight-plan packages and trip records by city pair, tail number and departure date. Users can view D-ATIS, METARS, TAFs, NOTAMs and winds aloft for departure, arrival, and alternate airports.
 
Airport diagrams, take-off minima, and instrument approach plates are displayed from local storage. Flight plans can be re-computed and new fax packages generated for current conditions.
 
ARINC is currently looking at how to display the aircraft's position on a moving map, either by taking the iPad's own GPS feed, via a small cockpit-mounted Bluetooth GPS antenna, or via positional data from the aircraft's own ACARS system, fed back to the aircraft and the iPad via Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband satellite connection (if fitted).
 
The app also currently includes FlightRisk, a kind of “Trip Advisor” for pilots who can report on safety issues at airports to the worldwide ARINC Direct community.
 
FlightRisk has been expanded to include airports in Europe and James Hardie, ARINC Direct's senior business manager EMEA, says that the tool and its community is starting to take off.
 
Other features on the app include a live weather radar overlay on the iPad's map, plus other data that enable a pilot to re-route their aircraft or make other operational decisions.
 
“The iPad coupled with SwiftBroadband, is opening up information that was previously only available via on-board aircraft avionics,” Hardie said.
 
ARINC has seen 30% year-on-year growth in the number of aircraft it supports in the EMEA region, with the Middle East being one of the major areas of expansion. This has been helped by the company's greater focus on the ME market and better local support through its new Dubai office.

 

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