Will Air Display change your flights ?

A liner's overhead on Ipad...

Hardware. For some people, Air Display is maybe old stuff but not so much in Flight Simulation. Avatron, a company from Portland, Oregon, specialized in productivity apps, has developed Air Display for Ipad. This adds another screen.

First, i thank iFLY team and members, for i discovered this product in one of their threads. You will find a link to this forum at the end of this article. Some simmers have already posted new ideas and applications for FS9/X.

I perfectly understand that Ipad is still an expensive tool but this kind of product will probably continue to spread out and will offer some better prices. What is interesting here, is that Avatron's solution can enhance and extend your cockpit.

So i bought Air Display for 8 euros from Apple Store. Then, I just need to download the Air Display utility on my PC and connect it to Ipad. If the tablet is not recognized, just enter your Ipad/Wi-fi IP adress.

My first attempt failed.  I launched Air Display first and then FSX. As a result, FSX sent me an error message about some graphic card and shader limitation.
So the next step was to launch FSX first and it worked fine. Just find a screen/panel on your cockpit and drag it to your Ipad. I tried with an overhead and a FMC but dozen of possibilities can be tried :

What you need :
- An Ipad. (but of course, don't buy an Ipad just for this application !).
- Windows XP 32 bits, Windows Vista 32/64 or Windows Seven 32/64.
- A PC and Ipad connected to the same wi-fi/box connection.


Conclusion :

The Bad :

* This kind of graphic enhancement tends to increase Ipad battery use.
* There are still limitations : Air Display doesn't work under Windows XP 64 bits, Windows Starter edition and some Mac OS Lion versions (but basically, FS9/X are under Windows anyway).
* Apparently, FS full screen mode is not supported (Air Display will work on FS windows mode) but there are software solutions to enhance a full mode.

The Good :

* No framerate hit.
* A complete dedicated monitor for FMC/CDU or any other 2D panel/EICAS/third part software.
* Dozen of possible solutions : Topcat Fuel and performance calculator, weather map, etc...
* It's working with multiple monitors (Matrox triple head for instance).

Once the FMC is on the Ipad, it's rather easy to enter your settings with a finger.

Topcat on Ipad. 

To read more informations about this, iFLY has created a thread on this topic.

You will need a member login, though, to read it.

http://ifly.flight1.net/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=569&title=ipad-for-an-fmc

This thread shows a lot of alternative solutions.