FAA approves iPads in the cockpit
by Volker Weber
FAA approves iPads in the cockpit; American Airlines to start Friday
You will still have to turn yours off. Not because it's necessary. Just because.
Comments
At least they provide an excuse as to why they do not want anyone except the pilots to use these:
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At the time I spoke with Les Dorr, a spokesman for the F.A.A., who said the reason for the ban was that the agency would rather err on the side of caution when it came to allowing digital devices on planes
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The F.A.A. did say it had limited the number of approved devices in the cockpit to two, one for each pilot. “This involves a significantly different scenario for potential interference than unlimited passenger use, which could involve dozens or even hundreds of devices at the same time,” the F.A.A. said in the statement.
(Source)
Thousands of aeroplanes take off and land with hundreds of electronic devices powered up every day. How often are mobile phones, ipads, ipods and many laptops actually switched off when taking off and landing? Hardly ever. Putting things to sleep, or even just turning the display off is all just part of the nonsense theatre of it all.
I am with the FAA here. There are reports of devices that made planes do funny things.
I don't want to imagine, if a flight director commands a small deviations to the autopilot at that speed and with a vertical seperation of just 1000 feet, just because one silly passenger can't live without his toy!
The system works, because everything component is tested and retested that they work together and faults are detected automatically, but we can not test every single device, if it has an effect on the multitude of sensors. It may all work in normal live, but if somebody has a defective toy, a tragedy may be right around the corner.
The FAA is not a bunch of stupid idiots. It's the FAAs business to make flying as save as possible and until now, they do a pretty good job.
I guess the Alec Baldwin thing has made this news. Alaska Airlines had this back in June. American started testing in July.
Salon takes, I think, a pretty fair look at the electronic device during flight issue.
http://www.heise.de/ct/schlagseite/2003/1/gross.jpg
I think most of you here still remember the time when Laptops were only allowed on board if the CD ROM Drive (remember that, too, right?) was removable ...
No this is not debated anymore - same will hold true for electronic devices in the future - I believe.
And then - even if you have a device that can go into flight mode, the flight attendant will ask you to shut it down, for security reasons.
I find it much more likely that the real reason is to avoid a discussion on all available, different devices on a plane in order to execute the rule - so it is to shut down all. Period.
