I am going on a long plane trip in the coming weeks, and I was wondering what kind of electronic devices I am allowed to use on the plane. Are there any specific devices that airlines forbid because of possible interference?
Laptop, palm device, CD player, etc… which are allowed and which are disallowed?
Much of this is left to the discretion of the individual airlines. The best thing to do is to call the airline in question and ask. Most will not allow devices which are specifically intended to transmit RF, such as cellphones and walkie-talkies, but things like laptops and CD players are generally allowed, except during takeoff and landing. The airline can best advise you.
Last week when I was flying they made the additional announcement of any laptop containing built-in wireless was not allowed or must have the wifi disabled before using.
But Q.E.D. is right, look on the website of the airline you are flying with and you will find a list of forbidden and/or allowed devices.
In one of the Master’s columns, he notes that not only objects which are designed transmit RF but also those designed to receive RF are generally not allowed by airlines. Such devices often have an internal oscillator that amplifies the signal by essentially amplifying & rebroadcasting the signal to themselves. I would assume that WiFi devices work on a similar principle.
Check with the airline. Typically devices that are allowed are non-transmitter type.
PC’s without wi-fi enables, DVD players, CD players, MP3 players, game unites, etc.
Anything that requires a transmission - Radio recievers, RC toys, TV’s etc, are not to be used since they can interfere with transmissions from and to the cockpit.
I think vibrators are allowed as long as they are used quietly. 
I’ve found this to always be true.
Radios, TVs which receive brodcast signals (i.e. not portable DVD players) and GPS receivers are not allowed at any time.
For take off/landing basically anything with an ON/OFF switch must be off.
Note that the FAA once said in writing that medical devices “may be used at any time during the flight, including takeoff and landing” (I say “once said” because I cannot confirm if this is still in effect).
I had a Delta stewardess order me to stop using my blood glucometer once, as it was “forbidden”, and when I showed her the line in their own “On Board” section of their in-flight magazine, she responded with “a cell phone is not a medical device”. Then the person sitting next to me, bless him, said something so funny I haven’t forgotten it. He pointed to the blood on the test strip in my meter and said “I know some plans are bad but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ‘minutes for blood’ plan.” The stewardess then realized what it was and apologized. 
Believe it or not, some airlines (mine included) are actively lobbying the FAA to get the list of approved devices expanded. Of course this entails endless testing and retesting, but because of this you can (on some airlines) now use cell phones while taxiing to the gate after landing (in the US). The goal, of course, is to let passengers use anything and everything that will not interfere with the aircraft.
Airlines with a single fleet type (ie Southwest, jetblue [for now]) can get these approvals quicker because the equipment only needs to be tested on one type of aircraft.
As stated by others, don’t expect approval for anything that transmits to be allowed in-flight, though.
In fact, at one time (post 9/11) the Feds considered equipping Air Marshals with Blackberries so they could surreptitiously communicate with each other during a flight. The idea was nixed because of potential interference with the airplane. If the Air Marshals can’t use it, there is no chance that you will!
For the OP: if you are looking to kill time on your flight, a portable DVD player will work. A laptop (without WiFi), a PDA (same thing - no WiFi), mp3 player, or even a book or a deck of cards will do the job as well. Or, heaven forbid, you use the provided inflight entertainment! I had to ride back from New York last week and I watched Paycheck on the way. Yeah, it’s Ben Affleck but it’s free and out before the DVD is!
Is there any evidence that these items actually cause interference? I find it hard to believe that the local oscillator in a Walkman would interfere with the plane’s radios while the 1000 watt microwave ovens in the galley don’t.
Hijacker: Nobody move! I’ve got a cell phone, and I’m not afraid to use it!
You see, that’s the key point. I argued this in a couple of very contentious threads way back in days of yore.
Occams Razor can be applied with no scientific knowledge needed.
If a cell phone or computer could really interfere with a plane’s navigation or controls, they wouldn’t let it on the plane. Why would they? They’d make you either pack it in baggage or surrender it at security.
If a simple cell phone or CD player could cause a plane to lose control, what would keep pranksters from turning it on at random times during the flight to see what happens? Or even making a very simple broad-spectrum RF jammer, carried in the form of a CD player or laptop, to play “games” with the plane?
What would keep a terrorist from sending as baggage a boombox-shaped massive RF jammer to work on a timer and bring a plane down in-flight?
At the time, I searched online fairly heavily for any paper, study, or cite that showed conclusively that an electronic device could interfere with navigation or controls on a plane in-flight. What I got at the time were scads of anecdotal reports of pilots reporting “odd things” with controls, while at the same time someone on the plane was using a CD player. Given that at any given time during a normal flight at cruising altitude there are perhaps 20 CD players, 20 laptops, and God knows how many other items operating, that’s hardly a controlled study.
It would be interesting to find a conclusive study that shows there is a problem. But it really appears that it is a “just in case” regulation that has little real intelligent backing. That’s not to say anyone should go against the wishes of the airline while you’re their guest of course, or against FAA regulations.
(a) The onboard appliances are properly shielded for use in the airplane, they don’t just go get one from Sears.
(b) You’d be surprised at the range of some single-digit-wattage RF emitters.
(c) At the very least, some of the devices do cause detectable interference – primarily, as mentioned, those that contain transmitters/receivers. Been in a couple of flights where the announcement was made to please check inside your carry-ons, someone’s cell phone was left on. It’s not like you’ll necessarily bring down the plane but it can get really annoying to try to communicate with ATC over some background noise resembling cicadas rapping.
I’ve often been tempted to use my digital camera to take pictures out the window of the city and the houses below during takeoff, but I have refrained from doing so for fear of causing potential problems (however slight risk it maybe) with the plane’s electronics. Does anyone know if this activity would be forbidden?
As far as I’m aware, digicams don’t emit any more RFI than any other computing device, like a laptop or PDA, so by extension, they ought to be allowed. I’m not aware, speciifally, of any cases where the use of a digital camera was prohibited. However, it would be best to check with the airline first.
Some airlines allow GPS units. I’ve used mine plenty. It makes flights with good visibility a little more entertaining.
GPS can be lots of fun while in-flight (if you can position it at a window with a good view of the satellite constellation). It certainly helps answer the question “what river is below us?”.
Thanks for that list; I was just on an American Airlines flight where GPS devices were in the banned category in their in-flight magazine. Glad to see there are airlines that allow them.
Yeah, I’m dying to use a GPS during a flight. Everything right there: ground speed, altitude, heading, moving map etc.
But I always fly American. Its not only listed as banned in the in-flight magazine, the flight attendants actually say it, right after cellphones & two-way pagers.
Local oscillator radiation was one of the first discovered causes of interference to aircraft communications and navigation equipment. Your typical FM broadcast band receiver uses a double-conversion super-heterodyne receiver with a first IF of 10.7 MHz. This means that the local oscillator for the first IF is set to a frequency equal to that of the desired station plus or minus, usually plus, 10.7 MHz. This puts the frequency of the local oscillator outside of the FM broadcast band if the radio is tuned to a frequency higher than 97.3 MHz. Guess what’s located immediately above the FM broadcast band (88-108 MHz)? The aeronautical band (108-137 MHz), which is used for voice communications and navigation beacons. All you need to do is to tune your FM radio to a frequency that is 10.7 MHz less than an active communications/navigation frequency for you to jam or disrupt the aircraft’s radios with the local oscillator radiation from your FM radio. This can be really bad news if the pilot is relying on a navigation beacon to point the plane in the correct direction, and he is getting incorrect directions from his instruments.
This isn’t some global conspiracy of the airline industry to make your life miserable or to force you to use overpriced air-phones. This is about flight safety. If you browse through NASA’s aviation safety reports database, you will find many incidents where passenger electronic equipment was found to cause harmful interference to aircraft communications, navigation and flight control systems. You will also find numerous reports of passengers who lied about having devices turned on, refused to turn them off. or turned them back on as soon as the flight attendant walked away. As far as I am concerned, such passengers should be immediately ejected from the aircraft, without a parachute.
There’s probably a couple of things to consider.
First, what ever is on the aircraft has been tested in the aircraft and certified for use, it’s a known entity. Stuff that people bring on may or may not interfere with the aircraft.
One of the really annoying things about cellphones is the interference noise they make when they are about to receive a call/message or are connecting to the network. Put your phone next to a radio and you’ll know you’re about to get a call because you’ll hear the radio interference first.
Now, imagine that noise multiplied by 400, running through the aircraft’s radio audio system as a fully loaded 747 gets within a coverage area. It may not do anything to the aircraft systems but it can be very distracting, particularly in a high radio work load.
I don’t think it’s a problem of interfering with the controls but rather the electronics.
And it’s not a matter of navigation over a large area (if I understand the concerns and issues) but rather when there might be precise location data needed, or a heavy communication load, which are more typical of take off and landing situations. Which would explain why the prohibition is during take off and landing and not during cruise flight for many items.
Cellphones are a little different category than, say, radio or GPS receives in that cellphones like to communicate with multiple towers when at altitude so the FCC gets involved.
Again, it’s not a matter of losing control so much as getting lost or interfering with vital communcations.
Because it wouldn’t bring down an airplane. It might mess up the electronic navigation equipment - but the pilot could go back to compass and dead reckoning if required. It might interfere with radio communications - but there are procedures in place for radio failure already. It WOULD be really, really annoying to the folks in the cockpit.
Sigh.
The prohibition on cellphones in flight is an FCC regulation, not an FAA The FAA position on electronic stuff is largely that it’s up to the pilot or, in the case of airlines, the company policy. Don’t blame the FAA for the in-flight cellphone ban because it’s not their regulation and they have no control over the FCC.
The original rationale for the ban, as I understand it, is precisely because there hadn’t been any definitive study and it was a matter of acting on the side of caution.
Yes, the experience has been largely anecdotal. Several airlines are presently conducting tests (I’m pretty sure Southwest is one) to make an actual determination. However, airliners are quite variable, ranging from just-off-the-assemblyline to 30 years old, with a similar range of on-board equipment ages. What is no problem for a two year old 737 might be a problem for a 15 year old 747. Anyhow - if an airline like Southwest can demonstrate that, say, Gameboys are completely compatiable with their 737 fleet their rules might change - but their entire fleet is 737’s, and they strive to make every one of those airplanes identical as possible. Contrast this to American Airlines, which flies a wide range of airplanes, all of which would have to undergo testing. May not be cost-effective for an airline struggling with bankruptcy issues to do the testing, and easier just to issue a blanket ban.
Then you get into issues like wanting to have lose objects secured during take-off and landing so they don’t become projectiles in the event of an accident. This has nothing to do with electronic interference and is more related to why they FA’s pick up your drinks and ask you to put away your book or magazine along with making sure your tray table is in the upright position prior to touchdown.
And then there’s the FCC - the cellphone companies are trying to satisfy the FCC concerns, and their own, by coming up with next-generation cellphones smart enough to only use one cell tower at a time.
But. again, it’s not so much controlling the airplane as interference with radio and navigation equipment. If you’re at 30,000 feet and you’re off a little that’s no problem - not much to run into up there, and if your radio sputters every so often not a big deal, just an annoyance. When you’re 2000 feet off the ground in congested airspace in heavy overcast, when you’re trying to land and you are wholly dependent on your equipment to tell you where you are, whether or not you’re right way up, where the runway is, and where the other large fast aluminum objects are that you don’t want to collide with you’re talking about a whole different level of precision. Hence, no one wanted to take a chance with some electronic gizmo in coach messing that up and causing a big bad accident.
The thing is, cellphones are so darned handy! For every anecdote of possible interference, there seems to be another with a situation like complete radio failure where a pilot calls the local tower on the phone and is able to maintain communicatons that way. So yeah, it’s all a bit confusing and contrdictory