Speaking of the iPad:

http://www.hiltonsoftware.com/

I've had good luck with this

http://www.approachsystems.com/index.ph ... =page&id=6

Used it on a few standalone GPS equipped HTC smart-phones (I didnt even have a sim card in them). They have a big version for XP that I was thinking of building a solid state for, it is compatible with WAAS receivers, TCAS, EGT, CHT, etc inputs.

For those of you who like to dink around with flight simulators, X-Plane has a beautiful HD version out just for the Iphone 4, called X-Plane HDEF 4G. The scenery and detail is exquisite, and the Iphone 4 plays it without a hiccup.

Or...

Drill a hole in the panel and stick a $500 turn and bank indicator in there. Good for playing in IMC all day long

Gump

Just found this thread; interesting comments. I can't agree with one of the comments that the iPhone is a "toy"; I think the iPhone and iPad have become invaluable for pilots. I have Foreflight on my iPad, which is fantastic, and PocketHorizon on my iPhone. Yes, I finally found a standby artificial horizon that actually works. Wish I hadn't wasted money on the cheap ones that came out earlier. I had to buy an external GPS as well (I went for the Bad Elf), but it's definitely worth it to have a reliable backup attitude indicator. The developer's website (www.logical-drive.com) is really helpful, too.

The idea of using the little accelerometers in the iPhone to find up, scares me.
Just making efis displays is a tease. My 4S resonds to roll and pich motions in the living room pretty convincingly. In flight it is not worth shit. If you can't fly the turn and bank, better steer clear of any cloud with your iPad or me phone.
I did see where Dynon just came out with a portable AI..
And they have gone one step better than panel dock. You can stick the thing in an empty 3" hole.
That one I might make a 180 out of a cloud with, since it is using some pretty reliable mems devices.
The gps in my iPad is pretty good by the way. I don't connect to 3G and the Zephyr sectional chart always shows right where I am and how fast I am going. Double tap the sectional and you have a course line. The thing was cheaper than lunch too. Well, not the iPad.

I understand that PocketHorizon doesn't use accelerometers at all, only GPS and Gyro. All I can say is that I have an AI in the panel and PocketHorizon follows it accurately, so if the vacuum pump failed, I would be happy to have it as a backup.

I just read their faq's.. Interesting algorithms at work. Does it handicap you to have to be vertical or horizontal?

If you're talking about mounting it, I have a windshield mount which allows it to be positioned vertically where I can see it easily but still have good visibility.

I stick an iPhone 4S on the dash of whatever I'm flying. Blue tooth to my Bose A20 for phone calls and a hardwire to play the tunes.

For the GPS/Nav side I've been using a program called Air Nav Pro. You can download a 3D database for the US and fly an Enhanced Vision System so that you can see mountains and rivers with the pitch and roll information. Also gives you a ground speed ribbon on the left and altitude on the right, plus other Nav info on the top and bottom fields. Did a night flight a few days ago and found it to be a nice, make that very nice, supplement to that lonely T&B that is the only thing required by regs. Backlight is great too, especially when the instrument lighting is the red glow of the little interior spotlight.

As far as gyro performance goes, I'm not going to bet the farm on it just yet. I did notice that even though it has a "calibrate" button that is supposted to "set" it on 0 pitch and roll, it wants to drift back to a neutral based on mounting position. I'll try a mount that puts it in that zero position and see how stable it is over a period of time. It certainly would recover you from an unusual attitude (tried 30 deg up and down and 60 deg bank), and flying over terrain you can activate the EGPWS function that shades hazardous terrain close to your altitude in red and yellow on the synthetic vision view. Pretty cool.

Update: Gotta give a shoutout to Bluebird for the Pockethorizon app suggestion. Basic, simple, seems to work well. Going to trial it in the next few weeks. I know for the past 80 years we've got by with needle ball and whisky compass to keep it right side up, but this free stuff makes life easier.

You're welcome. It's great, isn't it?

This stuff will just get better. In the early stages of development, like now, it is very similar to when GPS fist came out of the box. We used to say that GPS would fly you into a water tower with great precision (we quickly found the old surveys to locate airports where waaaaay off, by miles).

The graphics on these look cool, just as cool as my Aspen 1000 Pro, for many thousands cheaper. But don't bet cool graphics on the real world, just yet.

As a follow-up, I've just been speaking with a friend who has an iPod Touch and he uses that with the Bad Elf GPS to display PocketHorizon as a standby AI. I hadn't thought of that - has anyone else used an iPod Touch for aviation apps? Seems like an overlooked idea.