If you're looking for a new laptop...

I would imagine so.

You'd be surprised at how many people think that since they're not actively using their WiFi connection, it's "off." I can almost a guarantee that on any flight where you have a dozen people using laptops, at least once will still have the WiFi card enabled.

If this were truly a significnat safety hazard I imagine they'd simply equip the flight attendants with WiFi detectors -- they're dirt cheap these days, and some can be hacked to look for clients as well as access points.

You know, I've wondered about the RF hazard on airplanes too. A co- worker wanted to turn on his GPS receiver while flying from Ontario to Sacramento... I wonder if I'd have to physically restrain him...

When flying to/from the Philippines, I read a list of non-allowed devices: CD players were among them. Flying on Southwest, though, CD players are approved electronic devices (above 10,000 ft). (Why the altitude limitation?)

While in Dipolog Airport waiting for my plane, I read a nice detailed warning about why cell phones are not allowed to be turned on during flight: "Cellphone use may disable autopilot (!!!???), interfere with ground communications, yada yada yada... while communications might be interrupted only temporarily, any interruption is unacceptable."

Is this really true?

Michael

Not during landing or take-off, presumably, though there are some airports well above 10,000 ft.

Why take a chance? Who is going to pay for the work to make sure it won't?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

any

Hide quoted text -

Fascinating stuff.

1995, 737 airplane. A passenger laptop computer was reported to cause autopilot disconnects during cruise. Boeing purchased the computer from the passenger and performed a laboratory emission scan from 150 kHz to 1 GHz. The emissions exceeded the Boeing emission standard limits for airplane equipment at various frequency ranges up to 300 MHz.

Love the part about "Boeing purchased the computer from the passenger..."

Michael

The reason cell-phones are required "off" has to do with billing issues, NOT safety ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
         America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

The qualifier "may" makes any of it _potentially_ true. Another poster gave this link:

...which describes a scenario with autopilots disengaging but says that "...Boeing was unable to confirm the reported interference between the PED and the airplane system."

In fact, in all three example scenarios on that web page, they couldn't reliably duplicate any of them in a lab environment. To me that suggests that either some jets were not meeting their own design specs or some PEDs were not meeting their CE/FCC approval specs. It's just odd... but of course with an airplane "better safe than sorry" makes a lot of sense!

I wonder how much trouble, a large number of cells seeing the same cellphone moving at 800km/h, would cause for the cellphone system?

-Lasse

Imagine that you are on a long flight and lots of people were yakking on their cell phones. After a while, wouldn't you be tempted to smash some cell phones? Ah, now it becomes a safety issue ;)

Hey! The airlines could hack their computers and delete their frequent flight mileage. ;-)

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

any

Yep. I'm a very light user, a yes/no kind of talker... my father comments that to learn anything about the family he calls my wife ;-)

Mostly I use my cell phone for E-mail.

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
         America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

Now imagine your laptop sounding a "bing" and a message pops up:

Found new hardware - Airbus 320 Configure now? Yes No

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Qantas has just completed a trial of using mobile phones whilst cruising. They plan to roll the system out by the end of the year fleet wide.

All I know that if my cell phone goes active within a meter radius of my kitchen radio, the noise is louder than the program I'm listening to (in fact the cell noise is independent of the radio's volume setting, so it couples into the audio frequency part, not the FM receiver).

So, yes, cell phones can introduce serious disturbances into poorly shielded equipment. They probably could flip bits in low-voltage logic systems. Flip too many, and the system could go haywire or shut itself down.

robert

A small off-topic anecdote here:

Back in the 70s, we had a Collins tech rep -- an electronic hobbyist, too -- working with us at MCI. He was called off the job to put out a fire in Australia.

On the flight back to the States, he passed the time by pulling some tools and parts out of his briefcase and wire-wrapping a logic board for his current project.

According to him, his activity drew very little attention.

I was thinking about that the other day, and wondering how that might have been perceived in a post-9/11 world. Think of how you'd feel on a long flight if, suddenly, your seatmate started assembling an electronic circuit!

Tom

ROTFL!!!

any

That's a good one!

If it's anything like Microsoft's products, once you hit No, it would still keep pestering you:

Found new hardware: Jet engine controller Configure now? Yes No Found new hardware: Autopilot Configure now? Yes No Found new hardware: Fly-by-wire Control System Configure now? Yes No

Happily, by design "aircraft" and "poorly shielded electronics" do *not* go together.

Or at least they shouldn't. And folks like Boeing spend a lot of money to make sure it doesn't generally happen.

---Joel

Sometimes worse:

Automatic update started XXXXXXXXXXXXX_______ 60% complete

Cancel

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

any

Found New Hardware: Boeing Plug and Play Thrust Reversers. This driver is not Microsoft Certified. Downloading Microsoft driver now...