This is sad. The iPad mini was the one iPad that I really liked. It's incredibly light weight and about the right size to have as a useful hole in space that connects to the Internet.
https://www.faa.gov/documentlibrary/media/advisory_circular/...
Most people either use them an kneeboards or use a ram-style mount to attach them to the yoke.
The mini, in comparison, is much like a Kindle for reading books (that is it's comfortable to read, especially the retina displays), and I can read just about any web site without special handling when in portrait mode.
I've bought 3, and the only reason I haven't bought more is because they still work perfectly.
My best experience was with the iPhone 4, iPad mini and MacBook Air. Phone was small enough to be unobtrusive, iPad mini was good enough for reading, MBA was just about perfect for casual computing (though I would love a SD or micro-SD slot). My uses were Django programming & photography.
The iPhone 6 & 7 are awkwardly sized: too large to be unobtrusive too small for easy reading.
I bought the original iPad and the iPad 2 and never found a use for them, so when I needed a new iPad for work I went with the cheapest one. I actually found with the Mini form-factor I started using the thing, and now the 16 GB storage makes it a massive pain in the ass because the features that make the iOS ecosystem really seamless (iCloud) don't work with 16 GB.
Now I'm left wondering if I should get the mini 4 on this rumor...