Uses of the mini

(our honeymoon car was orange)

The "Mini" used to be a car like the one we took on our honeymoon in 1973, but nowadays it's more likely to be an iPad tablet. We have acquired one as a backup for the other, larger iPad which Chris now uses for IFR navigation in his 'plane. The application for pilots known as Foreflight gives him access to airport information, approach plates and all the usual charts as we fly along and to weather (radar) maps on the ground. As the advert puts it,

Discover the joy of a lighter flight bag and increased situational awareness.

Using his iPad for navigation (photo by Chuck Clark)

Now that we have the same thing on two portable computers, Chris has removed all the old paper charts as well as the cumbersome Canada Flight Supplement from his flight bag and thrown them away! I retrieved some of these from the waste box in case the electronic devices ever let us down, and am hiding them in a cupboard, but as long as we keep Foreflight updated, I'm probably being over cautious.

The iPad Mini only weighs about 300 grams, which, to me, is its best attribute. This will not only serve as a means of communication when I'm away from home; it also means that on short trips I no longer need to bring books, or magazines, or a notebook, or even a camera! I'll have to remember the cable and charger, but they're only tiny.

Nicholas Nickleby takes his revenge on Mr. Squeers

In anticipation of being away next week, I have loaded some free eBooks (c/o Project Gutenberg) onto the device, and am already half way through The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Dickens, which I'm discovering for the first time. Really entertaining!