Using a tablet PC when airborne?

It gets real interesting when you are bouncing around in turbulence.
I have an Apple Newton 2100 that I have used to record flight
information on. The Newton is kneeboard size.

Peter wrote:
Hi,

I've been told that airline operations increasingly use tablet PCs for
ground planning purposes, and perhaps also in flight.

Also some private pilots use the Jepp products in flight. I wonder
what tablet-type PCs they use - most current tablet products have 12"
screens which makes them too big to rest on one's lap alongside the
usual stuff.

I think the job calls for a compact 8" screen tablet, something like

http://uk.itronix-europe.com/product...booktablet.asp

I know a few IFR pilots who use the discontinued Fujitsu LTP-600

http://www.fujitsupc.com/www/product...stylistic_p600

and their consensus is that anything bigger is too big.

Any views here?

Finally, I know that in the USA one can get traffic data (via the Mode
S channel, I believe) and weather radar images (via commercial
subscription services). I know about showing this on multifunction
displays (I fly behind a KMD550 which takes a stormscope feed) but is
there any facility to display this data on a tablet PC or a PDA? It
seems a really obvious thing to do. Not here in Europe though - not
enough private pilots to make it worth anyone's while...

One would have to convert the data coming out of a Mode S transponder
(ARINC?) and feed it into the PC via bluetooth perhaps...


Peter.
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