Tech and flying
The commercial passenger aviation industry has been telling us for sometime to turn off all electronic devices during take-off and landing. As a pilot, I know that these are the two phases of flight that are most critical both in terms of requiring focused concentration from the pilot and in terms of the aircraft being most vulnerable since it is slow (controls are sluggish) and low (there are things to hit and limited recovery time).
Looking at it from a passenger standpoint, I seem to have a choice between the plane being extremely (alarmingly) fragile, it being some bogus rule imposed for no good reason, or some other absurd reason.
[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/30/]
The truth is that 99.9% of the time or more, the EM produced by electronics isn't going to be at all detectable, and the other times will be slightly annoying like a mosquito's buzz.I don't have any problem with having everything off and sterile from turning onto the runway to 5000' AGL and from the same altitude down and until we turn off onto a taxiway. Basically, anytime the engines are producing a significant amount of power and the retractable landing gear is down.
And there's got to be some better way to phrase it so that passengers will be happy to help instead of grudgingly compliant and annoyed.
For everyone's benefit, please turn off all electronic devices now so that your pilot can have the best possible radio and radar reception during the most critical parts of flight, the take-off and landing. We will let you know in a few minutes when you may turn on devices approved by the FAA.
By the way, I don't know how cell phones and towers work when the phones are 7 miles in the air and moving over 300 mph; however, they get a great signal in my plane -- the ambient noise is the problem. I suppose it depends on how closely spaced cell towers are will dictate what happens as you fly overhead and hop from one tower to the next. It turns out that the FCC is who has regulations forbidding cell phones on planes. The FAA doesn't care. I would imagine that the rules are enforced by the airlines as more of a protection against legal action from the FCC than any safety reasons.
Being a computer geek, I do habitually carry a lot of tech gear and it doesn't always get shut off before flight. I have noticed that I can actually hear my phone's acknowledgment on my radio when I do get an incoming call before it ever rings, but nothing loud enough to keep me from hearing ATC.
[From: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20090611&mode=classic]
posted by NerfSmuggler at
6/03/2009 06:34:00 PM
1 Comments:
I go both ways on this. I know that if I sit my cell phone on my sound board, I hear it negotiating a second before it rings -- through any open mic channel. I can imagine this would be, at least, an irritation. On the other hand, most electronic devices produce no interference. Cell phones and PSPs are a problem, as well as a Zune, but old-school GameBoys and Palm Pilots and iPods are not a problem. But there's no good way to announce this differentiation to a plane full of technically disinclined passengers, so you have everyone turn off everything. It's simpler, and it keeps flight stewards from having to police the people with inappropriate devices who believe the rule doesn't apply to them, regardless of their device type.
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