

Why I Won’t Turn Off My Gadgets on Planes - headShrinker
http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/29/why-i-dont-turn-my-gadgets-off-on-planes/

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mcargian
Although the rule is dumb, taking it out on the flight attendants is even
dumber. Flight attendants shouldn't be expected to know which devices transmit
and which don't or how a kindle works. There are stiff penalties that the
flight attendant must pay personally (can be up to $10,000) for not following
FARs. If it's dumb let the FAA know - it's their rule not the flight
attendants.

~~~
reverend
A hundred times this. Touré should keep his childish revolution to himself and
do as the flight attendants tell him.

I have a friend who's an airhostess and the stories she tells about these
pretentious assholes and how they treat the crew... Argh...

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chadillac
The most infuriating device I own when it comes to this is my Kindle, I'll
pull it out and start reading on the ground, I usually tuck it away under my
arms on my lap when the attendants walk by to do their checks.

I've honestly debated explaining in detail how e-ink technology works to
flight attendants because they can't grasp the idea that just because
something is showing a picture doesn't mean it's consuming power.

To top it off... I don't think you can even power the damn thing off, screen
saver mode, yes, wireless off, you bet, but when you flip the switch and a
picture pops up to replace the words on the page the flight attendants stand
there waiting for it to go blank.

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limeblack
Although it is annoying to have to turn off devices, the goal many airline
attendants say is "to avoid distractions during the most dangerous part of the
flight."

I get their logic, especially when listening to music, but when simply reading
books on ereaders while the person next to you is using a book, is kinda
illogical.

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dougb
I always thought of it as risk vs reward. The risk is that the plane will
crash and everyone will die. The reward is that I get to read my email 10
minutes sooner.

I'll wait until the plane lands to let my wife and kids know that I'm at my
destination. I'm generally against arbitrary rules, but this is one of the few
cases where I'll obey the dumb rule.

------
wglb
So in our ever-digital world, we forget that these nice digital technologies
have analog underpinnings. Cellular radio signals these days are digital, but
that digital signal is on top of an analog signal.

iPads and other non-cellular devices have CPUs and CPUs have clocks, which an
analog guy would properly identify as a Radio which is transmitting. Non-
cellular devices also increasingly have Wi-fi, which is a digital technology
on top of an analog radio signal. So an iPad, for example, has at least two
radios.

So an all-metal airplane with on the order of a hundred folks, each with 2*n
transmitting radios contains measurable radio frequency signal.

So what frequency is this radiation?

Well, in a non-linear environment (another analog deal), the result is the sum
and difference of all the signals, pairwise. So can an analog-enlignened
person honestly say that this mash of radio-frequency energy does not expose
the cockpit avionics to possible spurious signal?

If you don't think that is a potential problem, I would rather drive you in my
car than fly with you.

Now regarding cellular phones, it is the FCC that issues this regulation, not
the FAA. Why would they be interested in that? Well, since cellular telephone
communication is line of sight, do the math on how many more cells you and
your concealed cellphone are trying to capture at 1000 feet or higher? Could
be an entire city's worth.

Stewardesses are not generally tested for their knowledge of RF propagation or
RF interference, so focusing your anger on them is not productive.

And yes, the iPhone or droid is a marvelous piece of technology, but owning
one does not make you immune to the facts of the analog world.

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cmsj
"Why I won't..." articles generally tl;dr to "because I'm a dick". This is no
exception.

~~~
michaelcampbell
And you know he's all serious, because he just uses one name.

This article is exactly what you supposed it would be. He doesn't follow rules
that don't make sense to him.

~~~
dguaraglia
Funny thing is these people don't realize that flying on a plane is a
_privilege_ not a right. They could be kicked off the plane for less than
that, it's the company's plane after all, not theirs.

------
herval
I never turned any device off (except for laptop) and planes never crashed.
And they never will. Just have to notice when a flight attendant is coming
around, put it down for 30 seconds and get back to reading/listening/whatever.
Will I be blacklisted by the FAA by writing this?

(on a sidenote, that article is way off-topic for HN...)

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yread
flagged as it's off topic, misleading (mobiles do affect navigational
equipment (ILS) and screens, particularly when far away from cell towers, see
[http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=33&pagetype=...](http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=33&pagetype=65&appid=11&mode=detail&id=751)
), ill informed (a plane during descent or takeoff can get into emergency
quite quickly and FAs need passengers to pay attention, which is more of a
reason to switch it off than the interference) and duplicate (see
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3406167> ) blabber

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xster
Phones definitely have zero influence on the plane, I think it's more
motivated by the same reasons as a movie theater, to discourage use of
electronics in general and prevent a bunch of people confined in a small space
to get on each other's nerves, especially when babies and people with phobia
of flights could be more unnerved by a ringtone during landing than missing a
line of dialog in a movie.

~~~
yread
Phones definitely have non-zero influence on the plane
<http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAPAP2003_03.PDF>

Please, read at least the executive summary

~~~
sogrady
Assuming that's true - there's evidence the other way, of course - the
question is why devices are permitted on board at all. If there's even a
possibility that an active device can interfere with navigation and/or
operation, the policy should presumably that they not be permitted on planes
at all.

Because apart from those actively disobeying as in the OP, there are countless
more who forget to turn their devices off.

