Be Honest. Do you use airplane mode while flying?

[Anonymous]

I admit I am pretty surprised at the number of people who don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH is such a rule follower he turns airplane mode on as soon as he steps on the plane. Even if we are just sitting. He’s obnoxious.

Divorce is the answer. This kind of rule following will become unbearable the longer you stick around.

Agreed. The chaotic and irresponsible lack of rule following that the DW displays is unbearable. DH should move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I admit I am pretty surprised at the number of people who don’t.

I don't and my batter is totally fine after a few hours of flying. Other than that, no reason to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I admit I am pretty surprised at the number of people who don’t.

I don't and my batter is totally fine after a few hours of flying. Other than that, no reason to do it.

I mean the reason to do it is it’s an FAA regulation. I think FAA always considered it more of a theoretical issue than a proven one, but when you are flying tin cans full of human beings at 30,000 feet they tend to be conservative about safety issues.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Always.

[Anonymous]

So there's (a) no benefit whatsoever if you don't turn airplane mode on, (b) no harm from turning it on, and (c) probably at least some benefit in the form of improved battery life if you do, and yet, people here are insisting that only idiots follow the rules and there's no reason whatsoever to do something they've decided (based on nothing) is unnecessary and some kind of personal imposition. Pretty much checks out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Engineer here. You should shut off or use airplane mode. Otherwise, your phone is going to constantly try to ping cellphone towers as you fly by them at 500mph and that's a huge battery drain (when doing an initial ping, it uses more battery power then once a connection is established).

There's also the being a good citizen part of it -- the cell towers can get a little overloaded when a phone is moving that quickly between towers, affecting the service of those on the ground.

As for the part about cellphones complicated the airplane's avionics, that's pretty much a myth. Otherwise, we'd hear of terrorists showing up with 20 cellphones in their bag, threatening to turn them all on at once.

Toby Ziegler definitively established this years ago:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I once saw a special about it how a lot of 'trying to connect' signals messed with their onboard systems and caused glitching. Might have changed since then with newer mobile phones, but why take the chance to mess with the airplanes' system? They ask you to put it in airplane mode on every airline in the world. Why not do this one easy safety thing?

Good lord. If this was even remotely possible, the airlines would still require you to completely power down your phone.

Some of you are ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So there's (a) no benefit whatsoever if you don't turn airplane mode on, (b) no harm from turning it on, and (c) probably at least some benefit in the form of improved battery life if you do, and yet, people here are insisting that only idiots follow the rules and there's no reason whatsoever to do something they've decided (based on nothing) is unnecessary and some kind of personal imposition. Pretty much checks out.

Yep. "I'm not going to do something that benefits me because someone told me I needed to do it."

[Anonymous]

I don't want to be the reason for any mishap. I would rather be inconvenienced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I once saw a special about it how a lot of 'trying to connect' signals messed with their onboard systems and caused glitching. Might have changed since then with newer mobile phones, but why take the chance to mess with the airplanes' system? They ask you to put it in airplane mode on every airline in the world. Why not do this one easy safety thing?

Good lord. If this was even remotely possible, the airlines would still require you to completely power down your phone.

Some of you are ridiculous.

Why are you entitled not to follow the rules?

[Anonymous]

No, unless I think to do it to save battery. And we have 2 pilot friends (SWA, AA) who said there's no real reason to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't want to be the reason for any mishap. I would rather be inconvenienced.

It's not even inconvenient! If it takes you longer than 2 seconds to put whatever device you're on in airplane mode, you don't know how to use the device.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I admit I am pretty surprised at the number of people who don’t.

I don't and my batter is totally fine after a few hours of flying. Other than that, no reason to do it.

I mean the reason to do it is it’s an FAA regulation. I think FAA always considered it more of a theoretical issue than a proven one, but when you are flying tin cans full of human beings at 30,000 feet they tend to be conservative about safety issues.

Well when it becomes more of a practical issue I'll consider not doing it. Billions of people have flown with their cellphones on at this point with no issue so I think I'm fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I once saw a special about it how a lot of 'trying to connect' signals messed with their onboard systems and caused glitching. Might have changed since then with newer mobile phones, but why take the chance to mess with the airplanes' system? They ask you to put it in airplane mode on every airline in the world. Why not do this one easy safety thing?

Good lord. If this was even remotely possible, the airlines would still require you to completely power down your phone.

Some of you are ridiculous.

Why are you entitled not to follow the rules?

OK you get a trophy today for being a good girl/boy. Now go sit down and be quiet.