Cry Me a River

[J.O.]

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Everything's amazing and no one's happy ...

Louis CK

I know, it takes all kinds but this one bugs me.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-did-i-have-to-turn-my-phone-off-on-an-airplane

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Why Did I Have to Turn My Phone Off on an Airplane?

Written by

ANKITA RAO

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

October 26, 2016 // 02:38 PM EST

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I was flying from Nashville to Charlotte a few days ago when an announcement bled through my headphones. I ignored it, assuming it was the normal we’re-making-a-descent speech, and went back to my episode of the Longform podcast.

Then, a couple of minutes later, another announcement, and this time, with a tap on the arm from my neighbor. “You have to turn off your phone,” she said. Apparently we were making a “special approach” into Charlotte that required us to power down completely, no airplane mode allowed. A few minutes later, an air hostess came by to check that we all complied.

 

 

[boestar]

What bugs you about it?

[Kip Powick]

From the linked article above....

.............expert, Captain Ross Aimer, a former air force and commercial pilot who is now an aviation consultant with Aero Consultants. His first guess what that there was bad weather, or low visibility, which would potentially force a pilot to make a Category III (CAT III) landing.

A CAT III landing means the pilot is no longer relying on autopilot, and has to use precision instruments to land without the usual visibility of the runway

 

 

Whaaaaat  ????

[conehead]

Astounding...

[Seeker]

I have no idea about this aircraft but on the RJ CAT 3 landings are hand-flown with the HUD.  I'm guessing the issue is that the higher sensitivity of the avionics and HUD mean that they want to eliminate any possibility of false sensing and a subsequent Go-Around because of it.

My favorite quote from the article:

"my friend revealed to me later that he left his phone on the whole time."

I would have ended my "friendship" at that point.  Seriously.  A person who will not comply with direct safety instructions from the crew of the aircraft cannot be trusted to ever act in a logical or reliable way and therefore must be avoided.

[blues deville]

A review of the FM radio band frequencies used for ILS approach systems and those used for cell phones would solve some problems. Generallly any interference is from outside and not all ILS are calibrated below 200'. Cat II & III operations require special procedures on the ground to ensure avoidance of any signal interference. 

[Kip Powick]

Watched the video in the link where they did a CATIII approach but I think I heard tower say the rw viz was 600-700-600 Meters....

 

Just curious......are all "airline Cat III" approaches... day or night ....done with landing lights on???

Back n the "old" days I can remember doing a CAT II, at night, with a C130, where the FO, when we could just make out the runway, (probably slightly below CAT II limits ) said "Ooops you forgot the landing lights".... and turned them on........had to go around due to the 'marshmallow effect'....another briefing and another CAT II and landed with landing lights off.

[blues deville]

Some Cat III and Cat II still require you to see a runway or something associated with it. So at night, all exterior light use require special attention. 

[boestar]

When we did certifications for aircraft interiors on the Global Express aircraft we had the Engineering guys look for interference from all of the electronics on the aircraft.  We had to have our phones OFF for this testing.  They got their number adn then demonstrated what a Cell Phone ACTUALLY does on the equipment.  With the Phone ON but in airplane mode. there is interference accross  most of the spectrum not huge spikes but RF interference even in the FM bands used for glideslope and ILS.  now turn the airplane mode OFF and watch the show begin.  Interference accross the entire spectrum in significat amounts with several large spikes throughout.  any and all of these can have an impact on Digital electronics in todays aircraft.  Even though the wiring on the data busses is shielded, sometimes that shielding becomes compromised.  This is where the problem lies.

 

[J.O.]

4 hours ago, boestar said:

What bugs you about it?

It bugs me that she can't just accept a request from someone with much more expertise than herself and instead has to write a blog about the inconvenience of turning her phone off for 30 minutes. Talk about your first world problems.

[Seeker]

On 2016-10-27 at 2:17 PM, boestar said:

When we did certifications for aircraft interiors on the Global Express aircraft we had the Engineering guys look for interference from all of the electronics on the aircraft.  We had to have our phones OFF for this testing.  They got their number adn then demonstrated what a Cell Phone ACTUALLY does on the equipment.  With the Phone ON but in airplane mode. there is interference accross  most of the spectrum not huge spikes but RF interference even in the FM bands used for glideslope and ILS.  now turn the airplane mode OFF and watch the show begin.  Interference accross the entire spectrum in significat amounts with several large spikes throughout.  any and all of these can have an impact on Digital electronics in todays aircraft.  Even though the wiring on the data busses is shielded, sometimes that shielding becomes compromised.  This is where the problem lies.

 

This is an excellent description of situation.  People don't understand that electronic devices produce an electromagnetic field even when they aren't transmitting.  There are two reasons why we don't see more problems;  the wiring is shielded which greatly reduces the chance of interference and also because the proximity of the device to the wiring is a major factor.  If you place a device in close proximity to a wire the chance of an electrical current being generated in the wire is much greater and, of course, electrical current in the wire is what drives the instruments.  So some seats on the aircraft, those near wiring harnesses, are more likely to be the possible source of EMF interference but, since you can't say, "the people in these three rows near the wing can't use their PED but everyone else can", everyone is told to turn the damn things off.  To further complicate it every aircraft type will have different seats that are in close proximity to the sensitive components and even on the same-type of aircraft slight differences to the placement of components and/or compromised shielding along with 1000s of different possible devices being used means that it's impossible to accurately predict if, when, and how much interference there might be.

 

 

[vanishing point]

On 27/10/2016 at 8:08 AM, boestar said:

What bugs you about it?

The use of the term "air hostess"....

[Canoehead]

On 2016-10-27 at 11:29 AM, Kip Powick said:

A CAT III landing means the pilot is no longer relying on autopilot, and has to use precision instruments to land without the usual visibility of the runway

Looks like they corrected the article.

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A CAT III landing means the pilot is relying on autopilot, and has to use precision instruments to land without the usual visibility of the runway

As Seeker points out, the CRJ is hand-flown using the HGS for a CAT 3, as is the Q400.  I'm unaware of any instances where the cell phone must be turned off, except for one issue involving the intercom/PA system (an MEL type thing).  

That said, as a pax I put my movie on pause, or put down the paper during all takeoffs and landings.  If something goes sideways, I prefer to be situationally aware completely.  But that's me.