• 

“This is your pilot speaking. We can’t get an AT&T signal and GPS is lagging a solid two minutes, so we’re gonna stay in a holding pattern until that clears up. Thank you for your patience and for flying with us today.” Can you hear it in your traveler’s mind of minds? I can.

I can also easily imagine an airplane safely landing after the navigation system goes South and the pilots use an iPad volunteered by a passenger. Banner headlines would read “IPAD LANDS STRICKEN AIRLINER.”

In the above video, dude is majorly geeking out — look at all my really cool stuff in my really cool plane — with this iPhone compass and iPad navigation apps. And, well, I am jealous but in a positive way.

Seriously, I wouldn’t want to be in the cabin when the iPad precariously perched on his hairy leg falls and he starts rummaging around the floor with one hand, or two, to find it — flaming death falling from the sky.

That said, there’s a crying need for a small plane mounting device for the iPad, an idea that’s been fully realized in at least one plane, Sportair USA’s iCub.

What’s your take?

•