Pilots use iPads to access charts and airport info, instead of carrying paper charts. The data on their route and all possible alternate landing sites is programmed into the iPads before they leave the ground.
It is much more efficient than the old paper charts and gives the pilots access to much more information. But the iPad is not integrated into the flight controls in any way.
Yep. Good old Chinese-made iPads.
Apparently, iPads are used as “Electronic Flight Bags.” Replacing regular logs and allowing integration is a good thing, but they should obviously have some sort of backup plan!
It just boggles the mind...
Not all of them. The MS Surface 2 and 3 tables are also approved for EFB use and some airlines are using those instead, but I'm not going to paste every article ever written about it to the thread. You can look it up easily enough if you're interested.