Bluetooth and air travel

[Stephen Beesley]

The boom in BT accessories lately is great, but just recently I have been thinking of investing in a BT keyboard & maybe a BT mouse for my ideal mobile office. Then it occurred to me that I would not be able to use them on a plane - one of the situations where I really like to use my PPC for some writing.

Looks like I had better hang on to that Targus IR jeyboard after all...

[surur]

IR is also wireless. What if your stray infra-red signals keeps changing the channel on the inflight entertainment, driving the passengers to air rage and causing the plane to crash? :bad-words:

Unlikely, but about as likely as bluetooth causing a problem.

Surur

[Stephen Beesley]

...

Unlikely, but about as likely as bluetooth causing a problem.

Surur

I agree that bluetooth is pretty is pretty unlikely to cause a problem, but when has that ever been able to convince a sceptical flight attendant...

Anybody have any first hand experience of this?

[surur]

No personal experience, but you could tell them its infrared. How would they know the difference?

Surur

[Menneisyys]

when has that ever been able to convince a sceptical flight attendant...

Are you sure they have even heard of Bluetooth? :)

[yankeejeep]

Bluetooth? Wasn't that some pirate that used to sail around the Caribbean?

Seriously, as long as you have your device somehow touching the keyboard (with my TO keyboard, I just don't remove the cradle from the keyboard) I'll bet you won't even be asked about it. And if they do ask, just say it's a line-of-sight connection like IR. For how far you can distance the devices connecting, it might as well be line-of-sight anyway.

[Tye]

And use a marker to cover all the annoying blue flashing lights on your devices.

[Stephen Beesley]

No personal experience, but you could tell them its infrared. How would they know the difference?

Seriously, as long as you have your device somehow touching the keyboard (with my TO keyboard, I just don't remove the cradle from the keyboard) I'll bet you won't even be asked about it. And if they do ask, just say it's a line-of-sight connection like IR.

Sounds like a good plan to me it is pretty much what i was thinking.

[zybler]

But that is not really the point isn't it? The point is whether it will caused the plane to crash or not! 8O

[yankeejeep]

There is no evidence that use of wireless devices and cell phones actually impacts aircraft flight controls. As with all new technologies, it was best to err on the side of caution in the beginning and now that there is better information, you are beginning to see the introduction of wireless services on some transatlantic flights. The one area that is still questionable is whether or not in-plane wireless transmissions can interfere with communications between a flight crew and traffic controllers, so it would be prudent to have a continued ban on their use during take-off and landing times. As far as bluetooth goes, it is far less powerful than the other wireless protocols.

[Tye]

I promise I'm not being a smart a** here, but can we all agree there are people on *every* flight that either just forget to, or simply don't, turn off their phones, BT devices, etc???
I am *absolutely* for safe air travel but I know of zero cases where a small radio has cause a problem. If so, all the people that forget to turn off would have caused one by now.
And in all seriousness, please do correct me if I'm wrong on this...