Using an iPad mini for soaring stuff

I decided traveling with a tablet computer in a touring motorglider
would be easier than lugging around my 6+ pound Windows laptop, so I
took advantage of a good deal on an iPad mini. I thought it's wealth of
aviation apps, including soaring apps like iGlide, and others was a plus.

It's a lovely device, visible in sunlight, but I've discovered Apple has
built a rather wide moat around the castle that keeps out almost
anything that doesn't say "Apple" on it. It's very frustrating, because
these are things that are trivial with my Windows laptop:

- Getting my ClearNav IGC files off the SD card or USB stick and sending
them to the OLC, or to anyone else.

- Viewing flight files

- Downloading an update to ClearNav, PowerFlarm, etc and put it on the
SD/USB devices.

- Modifying my waypoint files (CUP format) and placing them on SC/USB

I'm hoping someone has easy answers for these operations, or I will have
to consider options other than the iPad, which could include a smaller,
lighter Windows laptop (or netbook) or Android tablet.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)