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Through some unknown event I initiated on my iPad today I came to investigate and I discovered I can make phone calls from my iPad using my iPhone as an enabler. This is handy for dialing up clearance delivery without necessarily having my headset simultaneously connected directly to my and iPad iPhone via bluetooth or cabling.

https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/ma ... 2b2/ipados

I do have to check to make sure it actually works with a non-cell iPad.

Rich wrote: ↑Mon Sep 13, 2021 10:16 pm Through some unknown event I initiated on my iPad today I came to investigate and I discovered I can make phone calls from my iPad using my iPhone as an enabler. This is handy for dialing up clearance delivery without necessarily having my headset simultaneously connected directly to my and iPad iPhone via bluetooth or cabling.

https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/ma ... 2b2/ipados

I do have to check to make sure it actually works with a non-cell iPad.

It does work. Many times my WiFi-only iPad rings on my desk when my iPhone receives a call in the next room. I can answer the iPad just like the iPhone.

Of course a non-cell iPad works fine at home, because it's connected to the internet via home WiFi. So I went where there was no WiFi station available, and it doesn't work in that case.

But there's a loophole.

I connected the iPad to my iPhone WiFi hotspot and can then initiate a call from the iPad

There's one more use case relevant to my situation that I still need to test. I will do that tomorrow.

So my DA 40 use case is how to deal with the fact that my iPad is normally connected via WiFi to the Stratus. So to take advantage of this feature for getting IFR clearance and release requires:

1. Turn off Stratus. Easily done, as it's mounted below the panel right in front of me.
2. Turn on iPhone hotspot. The iPad normally will automatically connect to it within seconds.
3. On iPad, go to Contacts and look up the appropriate clearance delivery.
4. Dial CD and get clearance and release.
5. Turn on Stratus.
6. Turn off iPhone hotspot

There is a step zero, which is to enter the desired phone number in Contacts on the iPad. This is readily done before even heading to the airport, really.

So is it worth it? More steps involved than having the iPhone simultaneously connected to my headset. For the Tango it needs to be by cable. For anything using BluLink I can be connected to both wirelessly.

It looks like a cell-enabled iPad would work in this mode without all the jiggery-pokery to work around the Stratus/WiFi factor, as apparently it has "Smart WiFi" like the iPhone. I can't personally confirm this, though.