The greasy fingerprint on a tablet screen is my new normal in the hangar.

I've been fixing planes for fifteen years, and until last year, our whole shop used thick paper manuals that would end up greasy on the wing. Then the boss gave us all tablets, which I hated at first because of oily gloves and dead batteries. But after some time, I adapted. Zooming in on drawings or finding part numbers fast is a big help, and updates come right away. I still have a soft spot for paper, but this is clearly the direction things are going. Wondering how other shops are handling the switch to digital.

4 comments

4 Comments

evan_grant701mo ago

That "greasy fingerprint" line is perfect, lol. The speed you get from digital totally wins over the old paper, even if I miss it sometimes. It's just a better tool, grease and all.

matthew_west1mo ago

The US Navy still keeps paper charts as backup on warships for a reason. That tablet speed vanishes when the battery dies or the screen glitches in direct sun. I’ve watched a pilot wait five minutes for a tablet to reboot before a pre-flight. My paper checklist got rained on once, it dried out and worked fine. The grease wiped off, too. Sometimes the simpler tool is the tougher one.

robinc601mo ago

Worry about dropping a tablet from a wing. Paper just got dirty, it never broke.

miles_schmidt1mo ago

Used to be all in on digital for everything. Seeing a tablet die mid-job makes you respect the backup plan.