B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 270; Flight Crew Total 11500; Flight Crew Type 3500
Time Pressure; Confusion; Human-Machine Interface; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
General None Reported / Taken
Aircraft; Equipment / Tooling; Environment - Non Weather Related
I'm trying to use my iPad as the FM; FOM; and airway manual replacement that is been approved to remove the paper manuals in the near future. I did my update of documents during the flight planning process. I believe I left operations on the way to airplane with at least a 75 percent charge. I had the iPad on top of the Ship Set bag during preflight and used it to reference some FM changes and later did FM and FOM systems reviews during cruise. About 4 hours later while using it; the low battery warning came on and it went dark/dead a short time later. I got out my charging cord and realized in the 777 cockpit there is only a single outlet on the flight deck and that the charging cord is not long enough to be able to use the iPad from either primary flying seat. I then thought what would be the result without the backup Ship Set paper manuals and it didn't appeal to my sense of safety. On a long international flight (12 hours); there must be some way of keeping our iPads powered and available from the primary flying seats before removing the paper manuals. The relief pilots were already in rest with their iPads and it doesn't seem to make sense that we would need to share a remaining powered iPad. It is also impractical to expect that by the time we push that each pilot's iPad is charged at 100 percent. The irony is that the passengers have an outlet at each seat for their laptops; but the flying pilots don't at this point in time.
A B777 pilot's iPad battery drained in flight and while occupying a primary flight crew seat; he was unable to recharge it because only available electrical out was further than his cord would reach.