Whilst it is still a legal requirement to carry a physical paper map for the region(s) you will be travelling through, moving map devices are becoming more and more dependable. Indeed, my flying school require us to take one when we go solo flying as a back-up.

I did quite a lot of research into tablet devices, and settled on the iPad Mini 7. The reason was that I’m already part of the Apple ecosystem so it works well with my iPhone (using iCloud), and it’s a solid device with good battery life and environmental resistance (hot/cold environments), important for the Cockpit. I did look into the standard iPad Pro and iPad Air, and although you can fit more information on them at once and write on them easier, they were too big in my opinion – it would just fall off my knee in the Cockpit and harder to stow. The iPad mini has the perfect form factor and I can easily hold it, it’s not too heavy, and it’s good for use outside of the Cockpit as well (pre-planning, watching movies on flights etc.).

Paired with a Smart Folio case (to fold when you want to watch movies / protect the front screen) and an Apple Pencil Pro (for note taking / writing down ATIS / ATC clearances) and it works really well.

I’d advise that if you do get an iPad that you purchase the WiFi + Cellular version. Even if you do not use the Cellular (I don’t), the GPS required for moving maps software is only on this model – so you can’t use the WiFi only one.

For moving maps software, we primarily use SkyDemon for VFR flying in the UK. My Flying School offers a guidance document on all the best settings, so it’s best to check if your school offers similar. Additionally, mine also offer a small discount for the first year of subscribing (annually), so it’s worth seeing if your school also has this as a benefit. Despite the cost (approx. £120 annually), it’s well worth its use and provides a ton of flight planning tools and in-flight information (groundspeed, heading, nearest VRP distance etc.).

However, it’s easy to become reliant on this, especially at a VFR level, so it’s important to keep the map skills up-to-date! Especially since GPS devices can fail (overheating/low battery) or GPS can be jammed (somewhat unlikely in the UK, but still a possibility).

Also, for SkyDemon you can use it on at least 2 devices, so I also installed it on my iPhone as a back-up if my iPad ever dies mid-flight. Again, don’t forget to configure your settings before flight as these are local to the device only (hopefully one day they will add cloud-based settings). You could also carry a small power bank if you wanted extra redundancy – ensure the bank itself is kept topped up.

Last thing to note – The CAA have produced a Safety Sense leaflet on their website for the Moving Map Devices topic, which is well worth a read (I’d recommend saving the PDF to your PC for future reading).