The Perils of iPad Navigation

It would appear that the problem was not the iPad, it was a failure of the WiFi signal.

Surely no-one would rely on WiFi navigation on its own?

I use an iPad all the time, with Navionics and iSailor charts, locally installed on the device and have the utmost confidence in it. I must stress though, that I also have an iPhone in my pocket with charts on and a Garmin plotter, which is next to useless but still gives a GPS position. There are some paper charts somewhere but I never use them.
Andrew
 
I have had my Android tablet on tonight running MemoryMap to install and try out an OS map upgrade and had it on tracking mode. Over the course of about an hour, the track wanders around my position in the front room of the house, into the back garden and into the field behind, up and down the road in front and has been up to 150 metres away from its actual position. And I have used it with the chart package to navigate the narrow channels with hidden rocks that a BBC presenter ran aground in. On camera! I guess I just got lucky.
 
Bodach na mara said:
I have had my Android tablet on tonight running MemoryMap to install and try out an OS map upgrade and had it on tracking mode. Over the course of about an hour, the track wanders around my position in the front room of the house, into the back garden and into the field behind, up and down the road in front and has been up to 150 metres away from its actual position. And I have used it with the chart package to navigate the narrow channels with hidden rocks that a BBC presenter ran aground in. On camera! I guess I just got lucky.
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Do the same exercise on board next time you get the chance

The GPS will almost certainly have been struggling to maintain an accurate satellite fix inside a building
 
Bru said:
Whereas here on the East Coast .... :nonchalance:
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Ah - but a more relevant expertise, besides I've met most of them :)

I'm not sure WiFi loss was relevant, unless the iPad was the non-sim version which has no built in GPS. My iPad, which I use with iNav software uses on board WiFi to pickup the NMEA data from the boat's system including GPS data. The iPad GPS is then a back-up..... I also have a bluetooth GPS dongle that interfaces if necessary, and then the Mk1 eyeball, compass and Paper Charts...... even so I have managed to end up on the Mud several times, but it wouldn't be the East Coast without the occasional glitch :)
 
I remember motoring or rather being washed down the little russel in thick fog with sound signals all around, single handed navigating on my iPhone with the navionics charts. It was great until my wife phoned to ask how I was getting on!
 
I Understand the pilot was using an AIS feed to his tablet over wifi. I have not read anywhere what specific navigation app he was using.

Internet based AIS is a bit dodgy.
 
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All these on board WIFI systems sound very complex to me. I like to keep things simple and have one device for one purpose. But I do like to use an Android pad with Navionics when I need really detailed charts. I download the relevant Navionics charts before I leave home or when in some convenient place that offers free WIFI.

Last summer at 0100 I was looking for somewhere to have a sleep in the Baltic as I was single handed. Gedser on the Danish island of Falster offered a marina around the corner from the main ferry port which connects with Warnemunde in Germany. While approaching the ferry port between sand banks there were lighted buoys which made it simple. But after the entrance to the ferry port was passed I was in a 10 metre wide passage with a depth of 2 metres and I draw 1.8 and the numerous buoys in the winding passage were unlit. By using the Navionics app I was able to follow the channel seeing each buoy when it was about 2 metres in front of my bow. It was blowing about 27 knots so I was concerned about being blown out of the channel onto the sandbanks. I took my eye of the pad when I entered the marina and ended up on a sand or mud bank being pushed on by the wind and with the force of the wind not being able to get off the mud/sand with my engine. The next day fortunately I was towed off. So much for eyeball navigation being better than all out electronic devices,
 
Boz said:
Ah - but a more relevant expertise, besides I've met most of them :)

I'm not sure WiFi loss was relevant, unless the iPad was the non-sim version which has no built in GPS. My iPad, which I use with iNav software uses on board WiFi to pickup the NMEA data from the boat's system including GPS data. The iPad GPS is then a back-up..... I also have a bluetooth GPS dongle that interfaces if necessary, and then the Mk1 eyeball, compass and Paper Charts...... even so I have managed to end up on the Mud several times, but it wouldn't be the East Coast without the occasional glitch :)
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It was disappointing that the MAIB report did not give the definitive information. I would surmise that you are correct that the iPad was a non-sim one and the two persons [ described as experienced mariners, not described as techy geeks] may not have appreciated the significance of this until outside the dock wifi coverage. It is quite likely that they may have had a smartphone with them that would have given the correct GPS info [it might have even given AIS info if the mobile phone coverage was adequate].
 
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