I cannot blame the pilots for using this if that is all there is. But the whole situation strikes me as dangerously fragile, and untypical for how aviation otherwise presents itself (at least to laymen like myself). This sounds like an ‘accidental’ niche market that is totally dependent on a single-manufacturer product mainly designed and sold for other purposes. Are pilots prepared for the day Apple stops making this iPad? Is ForeFlight prepared?
I have no real understanding of how essential this usage is. Obviously planes were flying before the iPad, and my quick googling indicates ForeFlight is mostly an American thing. But still, even if it is mostly convenience, it seems to me that cutting down hassle in the cockpit is a good thing. And thus it seems so weird to me that there is no major effort to reduce this dependence on Apple.
It is not exactly required gear. The GPS in a typical small aircraft includes com/nav radios, is mounted in the panel, and is FAA approved, but costs $7-15K. Anything purpose-made will be similar because of the FAA approval process.
The iPad is more a matter of massive convenience. The biggest factor is no more paper charts, but also it uses bluetooth to connect to the ($1,000 FAA certified) bluetooth transmitter in the airplane to display traffic (other airplanes), weather and TFRs (restricted airspace) all superimposed on standard FAA charts. Panel-mounted avionics don't do that nearly as nicely and they are usually off to one side so a bit less convenient to look at.
ForeFlight and the iPad also makes it very easy to file a flight plan. The old way is to call an 800 number and read off where you are going, the route, how much fuel, how many people, what equipment you have on board etc. ForeFlight makes all that very easy by doing it in the app. The FAA even responds with your "expected route" which with one button you can load into the airplane. On my old aircraft GPS where you have to use a knob to ender location identifiers, it could take 10 minutes of twisting knobs and pushing buttons that the iPad can do with one tap. A typical route looks something like:
KAUS SLIMM V558 LLO V76 SJT V68 CNX V264 OATES KPRC
And if the older GPS in the airplane doesn't know airways (a common situation), the V558, v76, V68 and V264 can each expand into a dozen 5-character waypoints that all have to be entered by hand. Entering that one character at a time with a single knob (scrolling through the alphabet) while the engine is running and you're just sitting on the ramp is a pain.
https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/153681
