[ltp] Re: Linux-Thinkpad digest, Vol 1 #632 - 27 msgs

[James McKenzie]

Ken and Morpheus:

There is a documented occurance when an Delta pilot was wondering what 
happened to his autopilot.  He would turn it on, and the plane would 
suddenly turn left.  The pilot got out of his seat and walked down the 
aisle of the plane.  He noticed a passenger using a Palm Pilot PDA, 
which was the only new electronic device on the plane.  The passenger 
complied after pointing out that his PDA should not interfere with 
navigation of the plane.  The pilot returned to his seat and turnd on 
the autopilot.  It functioned normally and no further events occurred on 
the flight.  It is not known to this day why that particular PDA caused 
the problem.   Any device can and will cause problems.  Oh, I'm a sort 
of electronic engineer and know how most radio devices work and have 
personnally witnessed what can happen when RF goes amok. 

James McKenzie


Ken Firestone wrote:

>On Fri, 1 Oct 2004, morpheus wrote:
>
>   Just to put your mind at ease, I'm a pilot so I watch this issue
>   closely, of course.  Several studies have been done to see if electronic
>   devices, including cell phones, are a danger to aircraft.  All studies
>   have shown that there is no danger to modern aircraft.  There is a
>   theoretical possibility of interference to avionics menufactured before
>   the mid-1970s, when the standards for interference were upgraded.
>
>   Your GPS, PDA, laptop and even 802.11, bluetooth and cell phones pose
>   absolutely no danger to an aircraft.  Airlines who frown on their use do
>   not do so for safety reasons.
>
>There is however a good reason NOT to use a cell phone in a
>plane. From 30,000 feet how many hundreds of cells will you contact?
>And this could interfere with the network, especially if a number of
>people do it at once, and overload a bunch of cells.
>
>
>============================================================================
>Ken Firestone, W3CAT     | For every problem there is one solution
>kenf@speakeasy.net	 |  which is simple, neat, and wrong.
>ken@firestone.net        |   -- H. L. Mencken
>============================================================================
>  
>