B757-200
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Time Pressure; Human-Machine Interface; Distraction; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
General None Reported / Taken
Manuals; Company Policy; Human Factors; Chart Or Publication; Aircraft
After I had been assigned a reserve pairing departing the next morning I used my company provided iPad to check my chart revision status and saw that an update was available so I attempted to do so. The internet connection I have on the road (I commute by air to my domicile) is to tether to the internet off my iPhone. When I attempted to download the update; the transfer rate was so slow that it would have taken more than an hour to complete; so I interrupted the update; intending to complete it at the airport in the morning. I arrived in Ops early to complete the update. I initiated that process using the WiFi connection in Ops. The transfer speed using the operations WiFi was no faster than when using my iPhone tether (approximately 1 MB every 3-4 minutes) and would have taken an hour at that rate to complete - so I interrupted that attempt. In the terminal Ops area there was a weak signal from the airport's free WiFi service; so I logged onto that and continued the update using that connection. The transfer speed using this connection was acceptable and the update continued to completion in 5-6 minutes. At all times; the data base provider's download program acted as expected and did not 'hang up' or indicate that any problem had occurred while downloading the update. After the update completed; I pulled up the charts for my departure airport and everything looked normal. This was my first flight using the iPad for navigation and my first flight using the window mounting device (it was my first time to even see the mounting device.) As instructed; I was carrying my normal complement of paper chart manuals. At cruise; I began setting up the arrivals into ZZZ and was learning how to mark the expected pages as favorites when I noticed I could not find the airport diagram page for ZZZ. Further investigation revealed that many other pages were also missing. There are no 'log of effective' pages in the electronic manual so I had no way to verify which pages were supposed to be present using only the iPad. Thankfully I still had my paper manual and was able to compare what was in my iPad to the paper log of effective pages. The following pages were listed on the paper log of effective pages; but missing on my iPad: six 'tailored' airport operations pages; two airport diagram/info pages; two ILS approaches and two RNAV(GPS) approaches. Additionally; the iPad contained pages for a Bulletin but that Bulletin was not listed in the [paper] log of effective pages. I completed our operation in and out of ZZZ using a combination of paper and electronic charts. I have no way of knowing if other airports are missing pages; but the two other airports in my scheduled sequence of flights appeared to be complete. Although company guidance says to verify a revision by checking the charts; there is no way to check every chart for every airport in a sequence prior to departure. There is no log of effective pages and no way to know if variations in chart number sequences are normal or an indication that something that should be there is not. Even if an anomaly is detected; I have looked at every document and help menu I can find associated with the database program and can find no information anywhere on whether it is possible to re-accomplish an update that is found to be corrupt. It does not appear to be possible with the current program. Once the program indicates that all manuals are up to date; I can find no ability to access updates to fix a problem. Given the limitation addressed above it appears I will not be able to obtain a complete set of ZZZ charts until the next update cycle - a real problem on reserve and an even bigger problem once paper charts are no longer required to be carried and kept up to date. We simply MUST have the ability to download updates in Operations. I attempted to file this safety report 3 times - once from a computer at the gate enroute; again from my iPad in the hotel; and again from a gate computer in the terminal. When using the company computers; I could not complete the [last of three required log-ins required] to gain access to safety reporting because it would not accept my password. When using the iPad; I could get to the safety report page but not all fields would function as intended and the system would not accept the report when 'submit' was pressed. In order to submit reports in a timely fashion; we simply MUST be able to submit them from company computers and/or from the tablet device issued by the company.
A B757-200 Captain described multiple issues associated with the introduction of multiple function iPad tablets into the flight deck environment. Among them were failures to update or assure the accuracy of 'apparently successful' downloaded updates of digital aero charts and the inability to communicate in a timely fashion with company reporting resources for which the tablet is intended to be the primary/only means of access in the future.