Slashdot Mirror
FAA's Ruling On Smartphones During Takeoff Has Had Little Impact
colinneagle writes: Airlines have seen almost no increase in the use of smartphones, tablets, and laptops among passengers since the Federal Aviation Administration ruled in October that they are now allowed to do so during takeoff and landing, a recent study found. Over a four month period observed by DePaul University's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development this year, 35.9% of passengers used mobile devices at any point during the flight. In last year's study, while flight attendants still patrolled the aisles for devices that hadn't been shut off, 35.3% of passengers used devices during flight. Chaddick Institute director Joseph Schwieterman said many people may not be interested in using their mobile devices in-flight, and are simply excited for an opportunity to "use the time to sleep and chill out." Another contributing factor is the stipulation to the FAA's rule that still bans the use of smartphones for making phone calls or send text messages, the report noted. That may change soon, however. The FAA recently received public comment on a proposal to lift its ban on in-flight cellphone communications service, which has been in place since 1991.
That will be the last time I fly commercial. The LAST thing I want to do is be couped up in an aluminum can for 1+ hours listening to half of other people's mindless drivel conversations on their phones. It's already bad enough the second the plane hits the runway on landing everyone pulls out their phones to call people. And they don't just have the "ok we just landed I'll meet you out front in 20 minutes" short talk. - No it turns into long drawn out annoying conversations hat CERTAINLY can wait until they are off the plane to have.
I'm not sure I understand the point. I don't remember anyone claiming that more people would use mobile devices on planes if they could use them during taxi and takeoff. It seemed it was always just that the people who were already using devices on planes wanted to also be able to use them during taxi and takeoff.
We expected the new rules to increase the use of devices during takeoff/landing from 0% to not-0%... not increase the use of devices in general.
The lack of data services makes them not such an attractive option. The expensive in-flight wifi doesn't really cut it.
More interesting statistics would be the number of people that use devices at all during the flight, though that would be more difficult to determine.
n/t see subject
Before, 0.1% used theirs during takeoff and landing. Now 35% or whatever do. I'm sure plenty of people use their iPhones or Androids in a sort of stealth mode as music players.
to "use the time to sleep and chill out."
Seriously?!
Anecdotal but just flew cross coast twice last week and chilling out in my designated sq ft of cabin room did not inspire ant sense of chilling out. If not for the games, movies, content on my kids &I iPads, it would have been an almost unendurable human "trash compactor" experience. Yes I'm talking to you united airlines.
I've been in other parts of the world that have always allowed continuous cell use on planes, and so planes fell out of the sky like hail. oh wait, nothing happened
Since devices can be on, but must be in airplane mode (with wi-fi enabled is fine), and most people use their devices for connecting to networks, I expect the thing that results in most people not using their devices is the ridiculously overpriced wi-fi on most aircraft.
noone can use any devices without wifi really... and guess what, airlines charge a ridiculous amount for wifi.
This is vaguely interesting, but doesn't match the headline.
Another way to read those numbers is "most people (say they) followed the no-electronics rule." The rule change was "now you can use electronics all the time." That would affect the number of people who used electronics during takeoff/landing, and you wouldn't expect much effect on the number who used it 'at any point during the flight.'
"use the time to sleep and chill out." my ass. I recently had a 31h flight (24h of them inside the planes) on monkey class. There was nothing pleasant over it, it was a means to get from A to B. The whole flight was survival and sleeping in that upright position was not a choice, it happens when the mind is so tired that it barely can't feel the discomfort anymore. You do anything to try to keep your mind occupied while being crammed in that seat for a full day, with the only break being getting out of the plane, to be scanned for bombs for the X'th time, just to return to the same plane and same seat...
...at 36,000ft. That's why I never use mine... After about 7,000ft I get 0 bars. I'm not going to pay $18 to use WiFi for longer than an hour so I'll just use the time to drink and relax.
My favorite game! It's time to queue up everybody who doesn't have a mobile phone, or as is the case more recently, people who *refuse* (as if anybody gives a shit) to get a smart phone, so, with an overtone of great cultural and intellectual superiority, they can proudly show the world how awesomely anti-mobile they are! There may even be little branch threads containing anti-mobile pissing contests. Also, we should plan on hearing from all of the people making sure that everybody knows just how abhorrently distasteful they find public telephone conversations.
I commute on the MBTA Red Line, which is a subway line in Boston, which has consistent cell phone service for every part of the line I hit on my commute. I don't think I actually notice more than 2 or 3 phone conversations actually taking place on the train in any given MONTH. I am significantly more likely to be bothered by loud conversation among two passengers, face to face, than I am by a loud cell phone conversation. Even if someone was having an loud conversation... that's what headphones are for. The chance of someone being annoying enough, while sitting close enough to drown out my music is pretty slight. You'd have to be pretty thin-skinned not to be able to tolerate it. I really can't imagine that being on a plane would be so much worse that it's worth getting any feathers ruffled over.
So if people aren't talking, then what's the point of the service? People text, reading news, catch up on social media, play games, stream music...
Alcohol! Gives me the ability to drown-out/ignore your intrusive cell phone use coupled with the potential to make me more annoying than you to other passengers all the while maintaining my elevated (perhaps evolved?) sense of not giving a fuck about either!
Win-win!
Ain't flying fun!?!?
Beware of the Leopard.
then remove the chain - it will still stand there
Because the instruction clock in you're computer has to be streamed from the NIST NTP servers. I mean it's 2014 /everything/ is better streamed now. OF COURSE the devices are useless without wifi, why didn't they think about that?
I will use my 3DS and/or iPod. Kindles would also be nice if I had one. I don't really use my cell phone on the plane much. The reason, besides it's inability to connect to networks, is simply battery. By the time the plane takes off, my phone can be well under 50% battery charge. I want to save the battery for after I land, where phone use becomes much more important. With music from the iPod, games on the 3DS, and video and other stuff on the laptop if I want, why bother using the phone? By the time the laptop and 3DS batteries die, and the magazines read, the plane would have landed.
I travel all the time. My personal observation is that using smartphones and tablets and readers is nearly ubiquitous during takeoff and landing. And now I nearly never see someone dig out a paperback "airport book", they instead use a kindle/nook/kobo.
I've flown a fair amount in recent months and in more than half the flights, I'm trying to use my iPad during takeoff, and the stewardess will come and bark at me to put my iPad away on takeoff or landing. Naturally, on an airplane, the customer is always wrong. It's not just a matter of telling the consumers, it's a matter of the airlines properly training / informing the crew.
And to add to the rediculousness, when I was flying into St Maarten's airport (the famous one that's right over the beach) last month, the whole plane was reminded that we needed to put away our phones for pictures because "we aren't in FAA airspace, so the rules don't apply here." I guess the EM spectrum is different outside the States...
I always broke the rule before anyway. I listened to lectures and audiobooks starting on my ride to the airport, through the airport, an interruption at security, then in the gate, then boarding the plane, taxiing the plane, take off, flight, landing, taxiing, arrival, and the drive to my destination.
So nothing is really going to change. Maybe, just maybe I might have a video based lecture that I will watch starting before take off. So now I can do that.
I suspect that I wasn't alone, in that many people probably listened to at least music. So the number of devices active during take off and landing was probably already quite high.
Having traveled to European countries since April the "US" based crews still instruct passengers to turnoff all communications devices regardless during take-off and landing.
For Airline crews, the sense of fear and the sense of helplessness are their greatest tools to harass and violate and control passengers. The psychology of the crews needs to be considered for their psychopath and sociopath desires of domination over passengers.
The day I witness the cabin crew being thrown out of the aircraft onto the pavement and doused with kerosene and flamed up will be a truly happy one.
I don't have a smart phone, and I don't give a shit whether you have one or not. At some point I'll probably get one, but I don't need one right now. So why should I shell out extra bucks for one? I might as well take a couple of 20s out of my wallet each month and set them on fire.
...and they made it clear that only larger devices (laptops) needed to be powered off. I know it's just an anecdote, but I kept my iPad mini on with iBooks open (learning Swift!), my kid kept playing 2048 on my iPhone, and I saw two other people within view of my seat using their devices during take-off, even more during landing.
The CB App. What's your 20?
They still don't let me use a laptop. In fact, the last time, we were still even 20 minutes out from landing, and the douche bag steward came by to tell us to turn off our electronic devices. Windows was shutting down on my laptop, and he came back and went off on me for not following his "orders" (after flying for four hours already). I pointed at the screen and said, "It is!"
...at 36,000ft. That's why I never use mine... After about 7,000ft I get 0 bars. I'm not going to pay $18 to use WiFi for longer than an hour so I'll just use the time to drink and relax.
I've got a dozen games, about two hundred books, and a handful of tv shows and movies on my iPad. I use it every flight, and it's annoying being stuck reading the in-flight magazine during takeoff and landing.
Really? You can't handle not being mentally stimulated for ~20 at the beginning and end of a flight? It is such a burden and inconvenience for you?
If you don't mind my asking, what medical condition do you have? Have you tried taking up meditation so you have something to do during this period?
Of course the usage hasn't changed. Takeoff and landings are the most exciting parts of a flight. You're either a) not yet gone crazy because of being stuck in a sardine can with crying children and big, fat stinky people or b) you're getting close to escape from the same crying kids and fat, stinky oafs. Why would an electronic device be more interesting?
Of course there's no uptick in use.
I've flown 6 times since the FAA allowed this. On every flight they still ask me to turn off and put away my kindle and mp3 player. They remind us that although the FAA now says it may be permitted, the airline does not.
Really? I don't fly as much as many people, but have flown more in the last year than typically, and have noticed in recent months (post-ban) quite a few people using their phones / tablets --mostly playing games, watching movie, reading books -- including at takeoff and landing time. Maybe my experience is just anomalous, but it's been consistent on a dozen or more flights. (And many more people, too, reading with Kindles or other e-readers. That's what I'm typically doing, having given up on the last 3 clues of the crossword puzzle, and usually unwilling to burn my phone's battery to watch a movie or something ...)
By contrast, I saw a few people sneaking in furtive texts from the runway, etc (I suspect along the lines of "I think Delta lost my luggage again, and we're 10th in line to take off, so don't rush to the airport."), but certainly not many, while the ban was in effect. Saw a lot of "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to please turn that off," too.
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Everyone's freaking out over things like phone calls on planes over this. People, this isn't a change to the ruling that smartphones and tablets have to be in "airplane mode" during the flight...they still do. This is just a rule allowing you to use the phones in that mode during takeoff and landing.
I travel a lot for business, and I can say from personal experience that the ruling has made an enormous difference; I don't know from where the FAA is getting their numbers. I might see one person with a smartphone every fourth flight I was on in the past, whereas now I can see several in use on every flight during takeoff and landing. And people seem happier for it.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
I don't use the takeoff and landing time to "chill out and relax", but rather I'm prevented from using any device (even a book) during that time by my airsickness.
Level flight - I'm totally cool with reading, using my tablet, etc.
Takeoff is so/so, landing makes me want to die.
Funny thing is my daughter's just we're on a flight where they said the stewardess were "yelling and freaking out at other passengers to turn their electronics off" during takeoff... apparently someone didn't get the memo... (allegiant)