I’ve used American Airlines WiFi on several flights. It costs $14.95 and is decent.
Some of their longer flights have power at some coach rows, all of first class.
You need a 12v auto style adapter for your laptop power supply.
Some US Air Airbus planes have seat power, with a different type of plug. Not sure if they still do it that way as I have not been on US Air Airbus w/ laptop power for several years.
If you have an auto/air power supply for your laptop, it will have both a 12v lighter style adapter and an aircraft style.
A bunch of oxygen masks tumbling down offers a subtle clue.
I can’t say for sure but I doubt they are set at 17% of normal.
You don’t need any DC adaptors if your flight is on any Boeing aircraft built in the past 20 years. The PC power supplied is 115 volts AC, 60 Hz. Your regular household plug will work in the supplied outlet. Some European carriers use a wonky universal keyhole outlet then they supply the required adaptor depending on your power needs. They normally supply 115 VAC, 60 Hz and with the right adaptor will supply 110 VAC, 50 Hz for those that have that power requirement. We have built a bunch of 737’s for KLM and Air Berlin that use these kind.
FYI, oxygen masks won’t drop at 10,000 feet, they are designed to drop at 14,000 feet if the airplane loses cabin pressure. Besides testing the PC power systems on new 737’s, I had the passenger cabin oxygen test added to my work package a few months ago.
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Note to Amblydoper: If you describe your links, then other people won’t post the same thing a few posts later. Many people are reluctant to follow blind links, which is why we have a rule on the Straight Dope requiring descriptions. Thank you.
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Are you saying that hard drives are not usable above 10,000 feet? All these years I’ve just been lucky? There are roads and campsites over 10,000 feet all over the Rocky Mountains, but I’ve never heard that we can’t use our computers and hard-drive iPods at high altitude.
Heck, I can drive to almost 11,000 feet in under an hour, yet local stores don’t issue warnings about it.
I make a :dubious: face about this, for the same reasons as ye olde **Wombat **posted below. ETA: Er, below you. Above me.
All you have to do is mouseover and see what it links to, and you’ll get the joke. (That’s what I did, and I laughed.) I’m not sure it counts as a “blind” link when the URL makes it clear what it is. (Obviously this would be different if it were some sort of obfuscated link like a tinyurl, YouTube, etc.)
I live at 8200-ft and have had lunch up at the Continental Divide Cafe in Rocky Mountain National Park more than once…and have seen people on their laptops up there…
I wonder if the pressure thing is due to being in an enclosed environment.
Or its a sudden pressure differential thing. This is the first I’ve heard of this…
So, I guess what we’re all saying here, Magiver, is:
Cite?
The last four trips I made, all on Air Canada, the planes had 110 outlets on all rows. Probably in all first class seats and the aisle and window in steerage. On one of the flights, I spent most of the five hours working on a paper. No WiFi, as far as I am aware.
Changing the subject a bit, all Canadian airports appear to have WiFi at the for $5/hour. Considering that I pay about $30 a month (and can as many connections I like, although we would split the bandwidth) this seems outrageous to me.
Of course it’s outrageous. You’re a captive audience. *Everything *in airports is expensive, because once you’re behind the security lines, your options are limited to what they deign to present you with.
All the more reason not to use the services at all. It sucks, but the only way to fight pricing tyranny is to do without. It’s not surprising that nearly every airline is having financial troubles when their solution to deal with said financial problems is to charge more.
And eliminate services.
I’m not complaining, though–right now, a MKE-BWI flight is running less than $200 round trip. And given that between the boyfriend and me we’re making it at least twice a month, that’s eminently reasonable.
Most flights so have plugs. Not all flights have wireless. Many you have to pay. I would just prepare for the worse and if you happen to get lucky than so be it! Have a safe trip.
What do you need a specific cite of? Wiki cite explains the sensitivity of hard drives and altitude. Aircraft are suppose to be pressurized at or below 8,000 feet. People at an altitude of 10,000 feet have problems with hard drives.
It’s not like it’s a guaranteed failure at exactly 10,000 feet. That’s just the general altitude where you start to see failures. What I’m trying to convey is that the read/write head floats on a cushion of air. The less air available the closer it rides to the spinning disk. 8,000 is the minimum standard set by the FAA. That means if there is a small leak the plane is legal to fly at that level of pressurization. A 767 is normally pressurized at 6,900 ft when flying at 39,000 feet. In the real world there are ducts that leak and the cabin itself leaks.
The other problem with a hard drive is movement. Normally a computer is relatively still when operated. In an airplane (or car) it gets bumped around so the combination of less air and turbulence combine to increase the possibility of damage.
Before using a laptop in an airplane it is a good idea to back up important files.
Yes, I now see that I did breach the rules. My apologies.
In my defense, my post follows the example of many other posters who have used the same “joke,” and I’ve never seen moderator action against it. I assumed the rule was for malicious links and trolling, and not harmless humor like mine
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Seems to me that providing wifi and power outlets is actually adding services, not eliminating them. And I am thankful that they are charging on a per use basis rather then providing them for free and increasing everyone’s ticket prices.
Actually, the cite I’d like to see is that “there are ducts that leak and the cabin itself leaks”, such that the cabin pressure is 10,000 feet or higher, with any kind of frequency. Or is it just worrying about nothing, as I suspect.
I recently flew to Hawaii on Alaska. It had gogo brand wifi. They offered free wifi this month. It lasted maybe 30 minutes and no more connection.