Electronic Devices on Aircraft

[HAL Pilot]

There have been discussions on the site before whether electronic devices interfere with aircraft systems or not. I just got this link in an e-mail from the Hawaiian flight safety office.

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?printable=1&ContentBlockID=cd752a3a-584c-4ba3-bbed-93555f2b2ade&

 

[picklesuit]

I always hate when I forget to turn my cell phone off, leave it in my leg pocket, have to listen to the damn thing clicking/buzzing over ICS, and then the battery is dead because it was searching for towers the whole time...

That being said, I think the wireless mouse thing is a stretch by a company trying to avoid another lawsuit...

 

[Gatordev]

I always hate when I forget to turn my cell phone off, leave it in my leg pocket, have to listen to the damn thing clicking/buzzing over ICS, and then the battery is dead because it was searching for towers the whole time...

Any reason why you don't just reach down and turn it off?

 

[picklesuit]

Any reason why you don't just reach down and turn it off?

I do if I hear it buzz..usually I don't and then it is just dead...you think I would get it after about the third time...that damn 'tardation

 

[Gatordev]

I gotcha. I've never been in anything quiet enough to hear it over the ICS, so when I do forget, I never know.

 

[porw0004]

Where have ya'll been!? Mythbusters proved that certain cell phone/wireless device frequencies interfere with some oldschool analogue aircraft navigation gizmos. (Don't ask for details because I saw the episode once, a long time ago, and I was more than a little drunk).

 

[roogs25]

I never believed that cell phones could interfere with anything on the plane until my low level cross country in Kingsville. First leg of the trip was Kingsville to El Paso and radio 1 (? I forgot which one is right above your left leg) was just sucking the entire time, both recieving and transmitting... we get out after landing and I find that my cell phone, which I had put in the left leg pocket of my g-suit, was on and inches away from the radio for the entire flight... needless to say the radio worked fine for the rest of the weekend once I secured the phone :banghead_

However, radio 2 (or whichever one is on the right side) worked fine, so I tend to think the cell phone/electronic device has to be pretty close to the avionics to screw with them.

 

[skidkid]

I do if I hear it buzz..usually I don't and then it is just dead...you think I would get it after about the third time...that damn 'tardation

You are in an aircraft that puts out a shitton of EM energy and your cell phone interferes with ICS, your shielding must be phenomenal and abyssmal at the same time. I have never had a problem with either cell phone or blackberry in the A/C, I seldom turn them off.

 

[Alpha_Echo_606]

With all the electronics on board the Navy aircraft I work on I find it hard to believe that electronic devices could cause so much commotion. Hell there’s analog flight instrument wiring running thru the MELC (main electrical load center) and they don’t have problems.

 

[mtsupilot09]

While on my solo xc for my ppl I noticed a buzzing sound in my headset. Every time my cell phone vibrated, it created some static in my headset. Not a big deal, just turned the thing off. That's the only experience I've had w/interference. I would imagine that the wireless mouse thing is false. Those things only work for about 5 feet at most.

 

[nugget61]

A mouse? The EM fields that wireless mice radiate aren't strong enough to do something like that... they should probably point the finger at themselves for buying an airbus. Its not like they've ever been known to do uncommanded things...

 

[FrankTheTank]

Those things only work for about 5 feet at most.

As much as I think this isn't a big deal... What if everyone had there phone on and that caused some interference on a CAT III to 600 RVR (300 for the MD-11 folks) and you are on THAT plane.. Sorry but this is one of those better to be safe than sorry kind of things... I have been there on a low mins approach and heard all the buzzing because the Capt (and sometimes me) forgot to turn off his phone and it is not a comfortable feeling... Does it matter... Don't know... Willing to bet your life on it... I AM NOT... I always turn my phone off when I get the Dangerous Goods Paperwork!!!!

 

[A4sForever]

W/ the exception of Vietnamese,Red Chinese, and Russian "cell phones" ..... ......I've never had any problems in nearly 25,000 hours aloft in mostly steam-gauge equipped aircraft w/ needles moving/not moving/radios jammed/freqs blocked ... etc., etc. Military or civilian.

Those damn gomer "cell phones" can be problematical, however ...

 

[picklesuit]

You are in an aircraft that puts out a shitton of EM energy and your cell phone interferes with ICS, your shielding must be phenomenal and abyssmal at the same time. I have never had a problem with either cell phone or blackberry in the A/C, I seldom turn them off.

I'm talking about the T-12...I haven't had that problem in the P-3...

 

[ThreeGreen]

If a wireless mouse and a cell phone are causing all this trouble, then wouldn't these:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=313&locale=en_US

and certainly these:

http://www.sportys.com/press/displaypress.cfm?id=209

be terrible ideas?