Just to be clear, I wasn't making an endorsement, I was just passing on
the info FYI so to speak. I have used tablet computers with conventional
hard drives up to 17,000 ft with no problems. Your results may vary.
C. Smith

That is interesting. Perhaps they have the problem solved.
What brand? As I understand it the read write head "flies" over the
surface
of the disk in ground effect. The theory is the air density needs to be
reasonable for this to happen. An airplane speeds up and or increases
the angle
of attack to fly at higher altitudes to make up for the lower air
density.

--------------------------------------------------------
Here is a web site on the subject and a recent patent.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/heads/op_Height.htm

Lots of people want to use notebooks with moving map software
as it is 1/10 the cost of aviation moving map software.
I wrote my own years ago and I used a floppy disk to store
the FAA airport data base. :)

The Home Built Glass Cockpit by Paul Lamar
Kitplanes
June 1988 page 69
The future can be here now: electronic
instrument displays in your homebuilt.

Glass Cockpit: Part II by Paul Lamar
Kitplanes
January 1989 page 66
Automatic position reporting could be helpful
when pilot's hands and mind are full.

Paul Lamar

I would think that some of the early sources of failure would be in air
turbulence, hard landings and temperature extremes.
There are automotive and military rugged-ized versions.
Solid state drives can now be had for $100 or you can even use a cheap
compact flash card as a IDE hard drive with a cheap adapter.

Cheers
Cary