Using electronics on Planes

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ubernoob

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#1138726 27-Sep-2014 12:59

hairy1: There is no onboard wifi on Air NZ aircraft. There is a picocell installed on some domestic aircraft which uses cellular connections to the aircraft and then a satellite connection to the ground. These were disabled over a year ago due to low uptake.

Low uptake by who?. If you mean the public, how could we ,we were always told we couldn't use our phones.
Or do you mean low uptake by the airlines?

hairy1

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#1138741 27-Sep-2014 14:01

Low uptake by the traveling public. It was well advertised on the flights that the service was available including PA's and seat pocket documents. Customers were allowed to use their phone's on these services. There is even a cellphone allowed sign next to the seatbelt signs on all these aircraft. These are still visible in the cabin although the system is disabled. The OJ. registered aircraft have the on air system installed.

Cheers.

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hairy1

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#1138742 27-Sep-2014 14:01

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

sbiddle

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#1138743 27-Sep-2014 14:07

I heard that at one point there were whole days go by with no usage except for inbound SMS on the 2 aircraft fitted with the kit and that more often that not there were flights where not a single phone even registered on the service.

I used it a couple of times to receive SMS messages, but the only person I know who ever used it was johnr who called me one day from it just for the novelty factor.

alasta

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#1138747 27-Sep-2014 14:17

sbiddle: I heard that at one point there were whole days go by with no usage except for inbound SMS on the 2 aircraft fitted with the kit and that more often that not there were flights where not a single phone even registered on the service.

I used it a couple of times to receive SMS messages, but the only person I know who ever used it was johnr who called me one day from it just for the novelty factor.

That's not surprising considering the prices they were charging to use it!

networkn

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#1142808 27-Sep-2014 20:51

Geektastic: I've used wifi on Emirates and on Air NZ too.

I still maintain that if it was as dangerous as they make out then things like phones etc would have been banned by now.

The simple logic can be applied that if it really was dangerous, with the number of people who forget or refuse, planes would be falling from the skies daily.

nakedmolerat

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#1142853 27-Sep-2014 22:41

coffeebaron:
nakedmolerat: By the end of 10 hr flight to Singapore, your phone will get hot and battery is flat due to continous searching for network.

The next terrorist attack: plane downed by overheated exploding mobile phones!

I forgot to switch my galaxy s2 to airplane mode. After 4 hours flying towards singapore, I reached my phone in my bag left in the overhead locker. The phone was toasty hot and battery dropped to less than 10%. Lucky I can recharge the phone using the usb ports.

I also remember 7-8 years ago, after the instruction to switch off all the electronic device - the guy sitting next to me, his phone started to ring. He took out from his pocket, answer the phone and said he will land in a few minutes and chat for a bit and hang up. He turned off the phone exactly at touchdown. I thought that was funny - he might as well just leave the phone on by then.

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ubernoob

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#1142978 28-Sep-2014 14:07

hairy1: Low uptake by the traveling public. It was well advertised on the flights that the service was available including PA's and seat pocket documents. Customers were allowed to use their phone's on these services. There is even a cellphone allowed sign next to the seatbelt signs on all these aircraft. These are still visible in the cabin although the system is disabled. The OJ. registered aircraft have the on air system installed.

Cheers.

Thanks for clarifying.
Not always a case of "Build it and they will come"

hairy1

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#1146991 3-Oct-2014 22:30

afe66: No info about the ATR or the BombairersBombairers either.
ANZ will probably only certify the A320 in its domestic fleet, which is annoying for me because I flybthem more often than the A320.

A.

Hey Afe,

Good news. The Q300 and ATR are both on the list to be added to the electronic devices list. The date I saw had Sept / Oct 2014 as the date for implementation so hopefully it isn't too far away.

/edit Of course this is all subject to testing.

Cheers, Matt.

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afe66

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#1147058 4-Oct-2014 08:27

Thanks for the update.
Great news.

A.

tripper1000

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#1165320 30-Oct-2014 21:29

I have read that on trains in big cities, when everyone is using their phones, the RF levels exceed the maximum recommend 8 hour exposure levels. This is in part due to the large number of transmitting devices in the carriage and also because of the construction, the signal has trouble getting out of the metal tube you are travelling in. The phones crank up their power output and the signals bounce around until they either hit something soft and fleshy (microwave oven style) or they escape out the windows.

If there are 250 phones banging away on a plane, trying to reach cell sites 10Km beneath the plane, through those tiny little windows, there must be a heck of a lot of RF bouncing around and potentially getting into stuff it shouldn't.

If there is only a couple of phones that haven't been switched to flight mode, the total RF levels would be much less severe. IE just because one forgetful or careless person can get away with it, doesn't mean it is safe for all of us to do it all the same time. Besides, not all approaches are flown on instrument. The pilot may have been landing visually in the cases cited above.

With a pico cell aboard, the phones all connect to that, and it commands the phones down to minimum power output, reducing the total RF bouncing around.

I imagine that since the threat of passenger cell phone interference on avionics has been realised, modern avionics on new aircraft have been specifically hardened against this problem. The older fleet may still be at risk.

Domestic flights in NZ are so short, people are happier to go without their phone for 1.5 hours, than pay expensive prices. Flying 12 hours to LA, in the opposite direction to friends and family might be a different story.

afe66

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#1166876 2-Nov-2014 13:54

Flying this weekend in three different types of plane (737, ATR, Bombardier) and no change to the electronic list of certified planes.

Bugger.

A.

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