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Told you so, 10 years later
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Baninated
Join Date: Mar 2012
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Aug 2006
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Kinda old news, though.
I flew to Boston a year ago, and the flight had free in-flight wifi. At this point the only thing they do is make you shut off devices during takeoff and landing. I think that's less about possible interference and more about safety, so that passengers are aware of what's going on and not completely engrossed in playing Angry Birds while the person next to them is trying to get their shit ready for deplaning.
I really hope that airlines don't allow cellphones in-flight, ever. Listening to some kid's obnoxious video games is annoying as it is; having to listen to 200 people talk on their phones during a six-hour flight to California, for example, would make me want to shoot myself in the face.
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Sell or send me your vintage Mac things if you don't want them.
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
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I'm with Shif about allowing cellphone calls during flight, for essentially the same reasons.
I've been an avionics tech (among other things), and my wife was an instructor in the Air Force school that taught people how to repair and maintain navigation and landing systems on every aircraft the Air Force had at that time. The instrument systems are all very thoroughly isolated from each other, and all well shielded from all sorts of different kinds of signals. Still, the most difficult parts of any flight are the takeoff and ascent, then the final descent and landing, so having everything turned off then has been a "common sense" restriction. Maybe that "common sense" needs to be educated with real data... Maybe now is the time.
The rationale given by FAA was always pretty sketchy, especially with the amount of shielding everything on an airplane needs to have just to work with everything else around it. But a lot of people's ideas about what was wrong with that rationale, and what "really" was happening were bilge and bull. Yes, even some of Rob's points in the old discussion were lacking. But a lot of the casting about for ideas about "why" comes from how complex an airplane is, including not only its electronics, but its inflight power systems too. That florescent lighting that gets turned off for takeoff and landing? It tends to produce electrical signals that get induced into the power systems of the airplane, much like old florescent lighting can cause a "hum" on portable radios. That same electrical power system acts like an antenna for just about any electromagnetic signal inside the cabin, and unless every aircraft device is very well isolated from spurious signals in the power lines, that "could" cause problems. Today's avionics are far more advanced, and far less power-hungry than even ten years ago, which allows them to use less current, allowing for much tighter filtering of the aircraft power going into each device without excessive loss or heating.
For various reasons, today's airplanes should be less sensitive to a bunch of laptops and digital music devices than the cash registers at Starbucks...so why make everybody turn off everything nowadays?
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Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Polwaristan
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As much as I'd like people to be considerate of others with their noise, I've given up and now always fly with some noise blocking earbuds or headphones and will play some white noise if necessary. Works like a charm, and baby, people, or device noises would have to be exceptionally loud for me to hear it.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Being as the majority of deadly accidents result form problems that happen during take off and landing, it makes sense to ask people to have all their stuff stowed securely during these short times; it's not that big a deal. The last thing we need is 150 cell phones, ipads, labtops flying around the cabin of the plain into your head if anything goes wrong just because someone needed that extra 40 seconds of talk time during take off or couldn't wait till landing to call their people.
A pilot I know says the signal of att phones causes clicking in their communication lines; not a big deal he says when just a few are on... but also makes you wonder about other things it's interfering with. Theres also the possibility that cell phone looking thing they're letting you keep using is a remote detonator.
Am I mistaken in saying that cell phones don't have a signal once the planes get to a certain altitude anyway? Many times Ive left mine on and it had no signal.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Nashua NH, USA
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Actually as the plane climbs and the signal gets weaker the phones actually increase their signal power to compensate. I think the idea is you could use the phone in airplane mode so its not actively transmitting so the only have to deal with unintentional leakage.
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Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: inside 128, north of 90
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If all the people on 9/11 desperately calling home didn't bring those planes down, I don't think phones could.
I agree stowing excess items during takeoff/landing avoids clutter/debris... but on the whole I'd rather be hit in the head with an iphone than the print version of the Complete Works of Shakespeare.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: The deep backwoods of the PNW
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Originally Posted by andi*pandi
If all the people on 9/11 desperately calling home didn't bring those planes down, I don't think phones could.
That is the most depressing thing I have read in awhile.
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Sell or send me your vintage Mac things if you don't want them.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Put your phone away so you're not distracted and it doesn't fly around the cabin in case of an accident.
Instead, distract yourself with a hardback book and let that fly around the cabin when there's an accident.
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Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: inside 128, north of 90
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I recommend the Complete Works of William Shakespeare - annotated edition. It also doubles as a footstool.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
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Originally Posted by knifecarrier2
Haha, I'm not in that list!
Take that, guys in the list.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Tampa, Florida
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The self-congratulatory motivation of this thread is subtle.
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Baninated
Join Date: Mar 2012
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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Originally Posted by besson3c
Haha, I'm not in that list!
Take that, guys in the list.
He didn't even think you worth mentioning?
I'm sorry.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: The deep backwoods of the PNW
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Sell or send me your vintage Mac things if you don't want them.
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