Narrative:

We found [required information] documents less than accessible during a weather divert which compromised safety. The [hard card] diversion guide and approach briefing card have been removed from the [on board paper diversion chart package] and can only be accessed via the ipad. With the ipad unusable below 10;000 feet (following difficulty communicating with dispatch taking valuable time in the holding pattern at 15;000 feet) and subsequently having to access several documents left little time to do so. Both the relief pilot and I were trying to access separate documents in our respective ipads in the interest of time management and one ipad froze for a period rendering it worthless and distracting. What in the past would have resulted in quick retrieval by reaching into the flight bag now has become a production. [This is in addition to] the added time required [to locate and access it]. The lack of [adequate] training; not knowing where to find things; the dependence on an electronic device that is susceptible to loading and freezing problems. All combined with having a new; unfamiliar flight information menu [for which we've received inadequate training] over complicated the problem. While the new flight information menu is intuitive under normal operations; during irregular operations there is no time to be searching. The combination of cumbersome and unfamiliar functions on the ipad and the new flight information menu made the divert a far greater struggle than it should have been. Our margins of safety have been eroded and we are trading on our high experience levels which cannot be consistently counted on. In addition; we did not have an approach for runway xx in ZZZ; the runway in use. We were attempting to brief the RNAV approach which was in the box and struggling to get it done without the hard card. The technology; as turned on by the airline management; is not ready for use and the [paper] backups have been removed prematurely.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B-777 flight crew found their workload during a weather diversion to have been significantly increased due to the difficulty of accessing required information; data and diversion planning resources utilizing the iPad tablet devices recently instituted by their company to replace previous paper based documents.

Narrative: We found [required information] documents less than accessible during a weather divert which compromised safety. The [hard card] diversion guide and approach briefing card have been removed from the [on board paper diversion chart package] and can only be accessed via the iPad. With the iPad unusable below 10;000 feet (following difficulty communicating with dispatch taking valuable time in the holding pattern at 15;000 feet) and subsequently having to access several documents left little time to do so. Both the Relief Pilot and I were trying to access separate documents in our respective iPads in the interest of time management and one iPad froze for a period rendering it worthless and distracting. What in the past would have resulted in quick retrieval by reaching into the flight bag now has become a production. [This is in addition to] the added time required [to locate and access it]. The lack of [adequate] training; not knowing where to find things; the dependence on an electronic device that is susceptible to loading and freezing problems. All combined with having a new; unfamiliar flight information menu [for which we've received inadequate training] over complicated the problem. While the new flight information menu is intuitive under normal operations; during irregular operations there is no time to be searching. The combination of cumbersome and unfamiliar functions on the iPad and the new flight information menu made the divert a far greater struggle than it should have been. Our margins of safety have been eroded and we are trading on our high experience levels which cannot be consistently counted on. In addition; we did not have an approach for Runway XX in ZZZ; the runway in use. We were attempting to brief the RNAV approach which was in the box and struggling to get it done without the hard card. The technology; as turned on by the airline management; is not ready for use and the [paper] backups have been removed prematurely.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.