Surgery on the Trinidad

Last year on the birthday, Mrs. IFR Pilot bestowed a long-sought iPad 2 on the IFR Pilot.  It's been used for a few flights, but the lack of a proper mount has meant resting it on the lap, glareshield, or the co-pilot's seat when that was unoccupied.  Time to rectify that.

Using a Christmas gift card and prowling the depths of Amazon.com, the IFR Pilot located this little gem:

That's an Arkon IPM2-FSM 18.5-Inch Flexible Floor Mount for iPad 2.  Price?  A whopping $34.99.  Note that the actual pad holder that was supplied looks a little bit different than what was pictured, but remains completely workable.

Here's what it looks like installed, using an existing bolt in the co-pilot's seat rail:

Close up:

Here's how it was secured to the aircraft:

A preliminary check shows that full reward deflection of the elevators and leftward deflection of the ailerons is still possible without any interference.  The arm is flexible, so it can be promptly repositioned in-flight if necessary.  Also, the iPad holder can be detached from the arm in the event that the front seat area becomes too crowded.

You can also see in the cigarette lighter a dual 12volt charger that was also secured from Amazon.com, which can be used for simultaneous charging of the iPhone and iPad.  Haven't checked yet to see if that will trip a breaker, so that needs to be done before any in-flight usage.

All told, with free Super Saver shipping, the cost for bringing 2TB's cockpit into the iDevice age was $50.42.  Can't hardly beat that!