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Bluetooth on an Airplane?
bblazer asks: "Since I travel quite a lot, I am very familiar with the warnings about cell phone use on an airplane (could be bunk, but I still respect it and those around me). But what about using Bluetooth? I just got off an Alaska Airlines flight where the flight attendant said that we were not permitted to use any device that sends or receives a radio signal. I often use the bluetooth features of my PowerBook and Treo while onboard a plane (you can have the Treo on without having the cell phone on), or I set up a mini-network with others I may be traveling with. Could Bluetooth cause any problems, or is this something I need not worry about?"
Personally I wouldn't use it. And if I was on a plan with you, and you were using it, I'd report you. Yes the odds of it causing the aircraft to crash are small, but do you really want to take that chance?
Anything that transmits has a chance of interferring with the signals the plane's navigation equipment receive. As the quality of a lot of consumer electronics isn't very high, the possibility that some unit may be broadcasting some horrendous noise on an off frequency is realistic.
Last of all, with these new fly by wire aircraft (and one company in particular has had major mishaps because thier code stinks), do you really want to do anything that might introduce a spurious signal into a system that can't deal with it?
I'd sure rather not.
(PS I used to test aircraft systems for a major aerospace company, my observations here are based on real life work experiences).
Average member of Slashdot crowd isn't fully proficient in commenting flight safety. Your local air line representative is. So why don't you pick up your phone and make a call and have your question answered in no less than 30 seconds by a professional?
A wireless scanner doesnt transmit, it scans. It won't transmit unless it picks up a network to hitch on to. Unless you arent talking about a wireless network scanner, in which case i have no idea what a wireless scanner is.
If you like what I've said here, and want to read more, go to http://www.krillrblog.com
There is no FAA restriction on the use of any electronics in flight. It is totally up to the pilot/flight crew. A pilot flying a private 747 owned by a sports team for example can freely allow use of any electronics at any time.
There are specific restrictions imposed by the FCC depending on the band in use, such as cell phones, and that is on it's way out.
Unless the FCC has applied restrictions to the band - you can freely use whatever you want subject to the requirements of the flight crew.
Now, that's not to say any pilot is going to approve - in the world of lawyers, it's far easier to say no than to take any risk, even if it's practically nonexistent. Think about it - the first accident that occurs after a pilot allows it - it's going to get blamed, even it it has nothing to do with the real reason for the event.
So, exactly how many planes have crashed due to cellphone or WiFi usage?
Planes don't crash when they fly in areas that have radio towers, they don't crash when flying under satellites, they don't crash when people "accidentally" leave their cellphone one. But, of course, in the lab, when you turn on a cellphone right next to a radio receiver, you get little blips, oscillations, or otherwise see some minor effects. Yet it's absolutely clear that these effects aren't important in the real world. Is it because the radio sources are located tens of meters from the equipment? Is it because the effects are minimal (the device doesn't need the tolerances that the variations on your scope shows)? Is it because you cherry pick your results (well, if the system is hit by lightning and there are four cellphones equadistantly distributed around the plane at 25m, and they ring in order, the plane will think its headed backwards for 300ms)?
When people believe a theory that contradicts reality, we call it superstition.
You can quote your own ancedotal evidence
And you quote yours. Who wins in this discussion? How about the person whose claims actually match reality?
Now, if you have examples of planes being downed by a cellphone, I'm all ears. Let's hear some facts that turn your superstition into reality, if you're so convinced.
Grumpy Pilot: "Whoever's using their cellphone, please turn it *off*. Crew, search the cabin."
I'm gonna go ahead and say that, with no formal knowledge of electronics, and years of people telling him that cell phones do bad things, he attributed whatever bad thing was happening to the cell phone without any particular evidence. I could be wrong, but I dare you to prove it.
But as a pilot, you'd be pissed off if the plane you're flying lost some crucial function, because of eg. an overload of some very sensitive preamp that happens to be in the roof just above some passenger using bluetooth.
As a pilot, I'd be really annoyed that a professional engineer decided to use a really sensitive op-amp in my plane, and to leave it unshielded. Being angry at the passenger is like being mad at the power company when your UPS exlodes during a brownout.
It wasn't so long ago that the airlines banned PDA-cellphone combinations such as the Treo. Now, many airlines including AA, Southwest and JetBlue allow you to use your Treo if you can show the flight attendant that the wireless feature is turned off (see, e.g., the back pages of American Way magazine). All it would take is one ***hole to be found interfering, say, with the intracabin communications system used by the Federal Air Marshals to have the policy revoked, and then I wouldn't be able to read ebooks or AvantGo on airplanes anymore. Thanks a lot.
I doesn't really matter whether its a risk or not - the fact remains that failure to follow the directions of the airline crew is a federal offence.
"When I grow up, I want to be a weirdo"