Aircraft equipment failure accounts for as many as a quarter of the causes of fatal plane crashes. Equipment failure also includes incorrect indication or instrument failure. Given that only one factor can account for a relatively large percentage of the causes for accidents,
and that a mobile phone or tablet can be accessed by anyone, while being able to provide mainly navigation assistance in everyday life, it could also be a useful tool or substitute for aircraft operations. With their sensors, they can replace faulty instruments and thus help
reduce the number of accidents. The capabilities of the mobile phone or tablet were investigated in terms of sensor reliability, accuracy and usability, as well as their shortcomings. Attention was paid mainly to the functions of navigation, orientation, flight parameters and communication. Alternative applications were tested on test flights on the basis of which they were evaluated for the usability of replacing the instrument indication.
The indications of mobile device have proven to be suitable for use in the replacement of speedometer, altimeter, artificial horizon, direction indicator and navigation instruments. Nevertheless, none of the selected applications should serve as our primary source of information in flight, as no application is officially certified.
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