Evaluating Electronic Flight Bags in the Real World

Over the past few years, the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) has developed several tools that can be used to evaluate Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) from a human factors perspective. The tools are needed because EFBs are sophisticated devices that may be approved for use through a relatively abbreviated process, in accordance with the guidance in the 2003 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular (AC) on EFBs (AC 120-76A). The newest tools were developed in coordination with the FAA Aircraft Certification Service and Flight Standards Service. They are documented in a draft FAA document known as the “EFB Job Aid.” In this paper, the use of all of these different tools is described briefly, and the tools are compared and contrasted.