What an EFB is, in regulatory terms
An Electronic Flight Bag is any electronic device or system, hardware and software together, that carries out functions previously handled by paper documents in the cockpit: charts, checklists, performance calculations, weight and balance and navigation. Garmin Pilot, running on an iPad or Android tablet, is a widely used example, offering interactive mapping and weather, VFR and IFR flight plan filing, and navigation with an HSI display and optional synthetic vision. Owning the app is not, by itself, what makes its use in the cockpit compliant.
The DGCA's revised CAR
The DGCA issued a revised Civil Aviation Requirement covering specific approval for operational use of an EFB, effective from 5 January 2024. It applies broadly, to scheduled, scheduled commuter, non-scheduled and general aviation operators who intend to use an EFB in flight operations, which puts a private or charter operator flying Garmin Pilot in the cockpit squarely inside its scope rather than exempting general aviation from the requirement.
What the CAR asks for
The requirement is built around the device and the operating environment being fit for the cockpit, not around the app's feature list. Among the points it addresses: the EFB's size and practicality must not make it cumbersome for normal flight deck use; its display must remain legible across the full range of lighting conditions a cockpit experiences, including direct sunlight; and it must remain operable across the temperatures and, where relevant, depressurisation conditions foreseeable in service. These are device and operational-procedure requirements sitting alongside whatever software runs on the hardware.
Where software capability and regulatory approval diverge
Garmin Pilot's feature set, global interactive mapping, VFR and IFR flight plan filing, HSI-style navigation guidance, terrain and traffic display where compatible hardware is paired to it, is a software capability question, and a strong one. Whether a specific operator is approved to rely on that software as an EFB in place of paper documentation is a separate, operator-specific regulatory question, resolved through the operator's own approval process with DGCA under the current CAR, not by the software vendor. Two operators running identical Garmin Pilot installations on identical tablets can have different EFB approval status depending on their own documented procedures, training and device management.
Practical implications for an operator considering it
- Confirm the current CAR text and any subsequent DGCA circular directly, since requirements of this kind are revised, and this summary reflects the CAR effective January 2024.
- Treat device selection, tablet size, screen brightness, temperature rating, as a compliance input, not a convenience choice, since the CAR speaks to exactly those physical characteristics.
- Build the operational procedures the CAR expects around EFB use, including backup arrangements if the device fails in flight, before relying on it operationally.
- Keep the navigation data behind the app current. Garmin Pilot's usefulness as an EFB is inseparable from its underlying database being up to date, which is the subject of the AIRAC cycle article elsewhere in this series.
Where this leaves a buyer
Garmin Pilot is capable software for VFR and IFR operations and is compatible with a wide range of iOS and Android tablets, current model recommendations favouring devices with generous memory and, for iPads, an LTE model for its built-in GPS as a backup position source. Whether its use satisfies DGCA's EFB requirements for a given operation is a compliance question for the operator to resolve directly with the regulator, and this article is not a substitute for that process.
ASPL supplies Garmin's portable GPS, ADS-B and avionics range that Garmin Pilot pairs with, and can advise on hardware suited to an EFB installation once an operator's compliance approach is settled.