Challege to Airline Paranoia on Wireless

[ormonde]

From todays "The Register"
There's no way an airline "cabin crew" member can be expected to know whether your PDA has a phone built into it, or whether your laptop computer has WiFi permanently on. Nor can they tell whether the wireless circuit is switched off. So, are we about to see a blanket ban on smartphones, and on notebook computers, in the air? And if so, what can we do about it?

The time really has come to challenge the myths of airline dangers, and settle, once and for all, what they are.

Can a mobile phone really cause a fly-by-wire computer-controlled aircraft to fall out of the sky? And if I switch on a Centrino-based PC, or a Pocket PC Phone edition, am I risking my life and those of my fellow passengers?

The full article can be found at

http://www.theregister.co.uk/

[lomapaseo]

Isn't necessity the mother of novelty?

Cant they institute hand wands to walk down the aisles and scan for RF, or is it because the RF from the overhead lights is so powerful that it wipes everything else out?

[Faire d'income]

For those non-pilots on this website mobile phones do not cause planes to fall out of the sky. They do however interfere with some navigational systems, usually the more modern aircraft.

To say they have never caused an accident is not accurate because the truth is we don't know. There are a lot of unexplained events. I personally have seen navigational systems go crazy and upon a search of the cabin found either a phone or a cd in use. If that had happened at a critical stage or during a particularly stressful approach ( e.g. weather, tech problem ) it might have been enough to cause trouble. ( We do crosscheck with other nav. equipment )

The simplest answer is to turn them off. Surely people can go a few hours without them.

[A-V-8R]

As aircraft continue to age, some metal to metal joints will corrode.

RF energy can be rectified by a corroded joint into a dc voltage, particualary if the joint is of disimilar metals.

DC Voltage in the wrong place is not good for computerized airplanes....the bits can really become bits!

Often we can hear the buzz of computers on board the airplane on the Low Freq ADF system while listening to Commercial AM radio. (Our airline has the ability to pump this into the Pax Entertainment system, usually we use it for ball games.)

Try checking on this site about Razor Blade Radios.....to see how simply it is to rectify a voltage. You don't really need the coil, but you will recieve more than one station at once if many stations are nearby.

http://members.aol.com/djadamson7/articles/foxhole.html

Imagine that voltage going to the wrong pin of a cmos chip.....

Actually, the only problems I've heard of that were documented to day involve Pax rf emissions causing the pressurization outflow valve to to modulate.

I do have some concerns about these portable defrib machines. They put out a pretty good pulse, complete with (Of sorts) their own antenna leads....

Some stuff I dug up:

From http://www.aircraftbuyer.com/featured/peds.htm


THE PROBLEM WITH PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICES

Despite the familiar pre-takeoff warning - "Please turn off all portable electronic devices including laptops, electronic games and cell phones until we've reached cruising altitude" - the flying public (and some pilots, too) find it hard to believe that such innocuous devices could in any way affect the operation of an aircraft. The truth is, stray signals from these portable electronic devices, or PEDs, can, and probably have, caused aircraft to stray from course.



A regional jet flying from Salt Lake City to Eugene, Ore., received three separate warnings of discrepancies between the captain's and first officer's instruments. Once passengers turned off their PEDs, the discrepancies disappeared.

An aircraft on approach to Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport was advised that it was four miles off course. The captain's navigation indicator had been scalloping left and right, but 15 seconds after a passenger shut down his PED, the scalloping stopped.


These are just two of numerous reports made by pilots and flight crews in which CD players, laptop computers and electronic games have interfered with the operation of navigational equipment and communication radios. The NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) has received more than 50 reports involving alleged PED interference.

This has quite a few examples on it......

http://www.airnig.co.uk/emi.htm

[Dop]

Here's another angle, in which a bunch of geeks claim the god-given right to carry as much electronic equipment as they possibly can onto planes and use them all, all the time...

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/29/1258259&mode=flat

Note: You may find some of the responses above incredibly annoying...

[lomapaseo]

Looks like somebody finally put forth some data.

My read of it focused on the 30 cms distance as critical. I wonder how likely the passengers are to be this close.

http://www.caa.co.uk/publications/p...ails.asp?id=751

[Send Clowns]

So you know where the wiring runs are on all the applicable aircraft then, lomapaseo? Also it says they used a 30-cm distance, not that this was the limit. The attempt was to prove that such interference was feasible. More research is required to see if it happens airborne, but as someone said before why can people not people live for a flight without their electronics? What did they do 10 years ago?

[L337]

This has to be my favorite reply.....He clearly lives on a different planet to me.



"I stopped flying commercial when they complained about firearms.

I have a right to carry, they want to arugue, so i dont give them my business.

Now i either drive, or charter a private plane."



I am pleased he drives. Don't want him on my aeroplane.


L337.