feathers
March 2nd, 2004, 03:23 PM
I've gotten into a debate or two with a close friend of mine regarding the ban on eletronic gizmos while aboard aircraft. I think he and I agree about obvious stuff (cellphones... two-way pagers... VHF transceivers... ^_~) but he doesn't believe the airlines need to ban things like CD players and gameboys and laptops.
I've tried to explain to him how critical things are... that when you're flying the ILS into an airport, most likely the aircraft is on autopilot and that the signals coming up from the ground are nothing more than radio signals. Any interference caused to them can distort the signal, alter the reading and make the autopilot try to follow an incorrect path. I use the prime example of my Dad's coffeemaker. It has an electronic subsystem with a clock and a brew 'alarm' (you know, it makes coffee at a specific time) and such. And when it's on, I get so much interference in my room on the AM band it makes listening pretty annoying. It's a COFFEEMAKER! But it throws enough RF interference to beat up on local AM broadcasts (which is also what aircraft radios use).
He says he can't think of any episode where a CD player caused an airliner to crash. I seem to remember an episode where a CD player (or a laptop?) caused some wild banking in an aircraft on final. Furthermore, I attest that when it comes to the lives of 250+ passengers, I'd rather be well into the safe margin instead of sorry.
I also remember the FAR saying in some regard that it's up to the air carrier to make the policy on what's not allowed, although certain items cannot be banned (like pacemakers? Banning those would sure suck...)
Opinions from the crowd?
James
I've tried to explain to him how critical things are... that when you're flying the ILS into an airport, most likely the aircraft is on autopilot and that the signals coming up from the ground are nothing more than radio signals. Any interference caused to them can distort the signal, alter the reading and make the autopilot try to follow an incorrect path. I use the prime example of my Dad's coffeemaker. It has an electronic subsystem with a clock and a brew 'alarm' (you know, it makes coffee at a specific time) and such. And when it's on, I get so much interference in my room on the AM band it makes listening pretty annoying. It's a COFFEEMAKER! But it throws enough RF interference to beat up on local AM broadcasts (which is also what aircraft radios use).
He says he can't think of any episode where a CD player caused an airliner to crash. I seem to remember an episode where a CD player (or a laptop?) caused some wild banking in an aircraft on final. Furthermore, I attest that when it comes to the lives of 250+ passengers, I'd rather be well into the safe margin instead of sorry.
I also remember the FAR saying in some regard that it's up to the air carrier to make the policy on what's not allowed, although certain items cannot be banned (like pacemakers? Banning those would sure suck...)
Opinions from the crowd?
James