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- Mar 18, 2017
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So, I domicile on the surface of the sun.
Oh, excuse me. You know it as Arizona.
Upon returning last year from a long flying hiatus, I discovered the wonderful-ness of a cellular-enabled iPad mini running Foreflight. As I searched for a good mounting location (and purchased half of the RAM catalog), I finally landed on the left corner of the pilot-side windscreen. All was well, until my first thermal shutdown. Yay, iOS devices.
As last summer wore on, I dealt with a few thermal shut downs. I could delay or sometimes prevent them by keeping the unit off the windscreen until I was ready to depart, but any time the sun was decking the back of the case directly, I risked the black screen of death.
After swapping my 160 for a 235 and going through a few maintenance cycles, last weekend saw me back in the air...and saw my first thermal shutdown as I was climbing out of Mesa Falcon Field. It was a short flight, and I had no problem visually nav-ing to my home field. But it was flippin -April-...and also quite inconvenient to lose my eBrain just as tower cleared me for a frequency change to Mesa Gateway.
Id eyeballed the X-Naut active cooling mount last summer, both for this application as well as a drone application. I experienced a few inopportune in-flight ipad shut downs on that platform last year, and an X-Naut (or a DJI CrystalSky, which we bought as well) was contemplated as a solution.
I pulled the trigger this week and the X-Naut landed yesterday. Id had a chance to play with them a little bit at a local pilot shop, and they seem reasonably made. A bit spendy though they are, the ultimate test will be flying it this summer. Itll either hang or it wont.
Ill update this thread as I put it through its paces. Right now, its still unmounted and untested. However, thatll change in the coming weeks.
If this doesnt work, a dedicated platform like a 696/796 may be the next move. That said, I -do- like he iPad and Foreflight, and would prefer to add those as a supplement, versus a replacement.
The panel pic below is from my old 160 - but demonstrates where this combo will be mounted. Well see how she fares. Primary power will be from a USB outlet or a supplemental battery in the left map pocket.
Oh, excuse me. You know it as Arizona.
Upon returning last year from a long flying hiatus, I discovered the wonderful-ness of a cellular-enabled iPad mini running Foreflight. As I searched for a good mounting location (and purchased half of the RAM catalog), I finally landed on the left corner of the pilot-side windscreen. All was well, until my first thermal shutdown. Yay, iOS devices.
As last summer wore on, I dealt with a few thermal shut downs. I could delay or sometimes prevent them by keeping the unit off the windscreen until I was ready to depart, but any time the sun was decking the back of the case directly, I risked the black screen of death.
After swapping my 160 for a 235 and going through a few maintenance cycles, last weekend saw me back in the air...and saw my first thermal shutdown as I was climbing out of Mesa Falcon Field. It was a short flight, and I had no problem visually nav-ing to my home field. But it was flippin -April-...and also quite inconvenient to lose my eBrain just as tower cleared me for a frequency change to Mesa Gateway.
Id eyeballed the X-Naut active cooling mount last summer, both for this application as well as a drone application. I experienced a few inopportune in-flight ipad shut downs on that platform last year, and an X-Naut (or a DJI CrystalSky, which we bought as well) was contemplated as a solution.
I pulled the trigger this week and the X-Naut landed yesterday. Id had a chance to play with them a little bit at a local pilot shop, and they seem reasonably made. A bit spendy though they are, the ultimate test will be flying it this summer. Itll either hang or it wont.
Ill update this thread as I put it through its paces. Right now, its still unmounted and untested. However, thatll change in the coming weeks.
If this doesnt work, a dedicated platform like a 696/796 may be the next move. That said, I -do- like he iPad and Foreflight, and would prefer to add those as a supplement, versus a replacement.
The panel pic below is from my old 160 - but demonstrates where this combo will be mounted. Well see how she fares. Primary power will be from a USB outlet or a supplemental battery in the left map pocket.
