Using PEDs and portable EFBs in flight brings advantages for the pilot(s), as they may enable or enhance communication and bring information useful among other for calculating mass and balance, aircraft performance and fuel endurance and for flight planning and replanning, navigation, terrain, obstacle or traffic awareness and avoidance.
But:
1. They might focus pilots attention away from flying the helicopter: Using PEDs and portable EFBs in the cockpit can also negatively impact flight safety, as they may focus pilots’ attention ‘head down’, distract them from flying the aircraft and managing the flight path. There are also anecdotal stories of pilots flying “the magenta line” and sticking to an unadvisable flight path just because their device tells them to like it’s a Satnav in a car.
2. They might increase the risk of an airborne or terrain collision: Using PEDs and portable EFBs while flying may also reduce or impair visual scanning outside the cockpit and affect the pilots’ capability to see and avoid, which may result in mid-air collision or collision with terrain, cables and obstacles.
3. They become a hazard themselves (falling off or going on fire). Loosely secured PEDs and EFBs may also move and fall while flying, which may interfere with flight controls or lead pilots to inadvertently perform inappropriate actions on the flight controls while trying to retrieve them from where they moved or fell. This may result in abrupt changes of heading or attitudes and undesired aircraft states possibly leading to upset and loss of control in flight (LOC-I). Besides, portable EFB and other PEDs can, like every other lithium battery powered equipment, suffer thermal runaway.