NBAA Speaking Up on Talk of Cockpit PC Ban

NBAA is taking a proactive approach to the “possibility of legislation that would restrict laptops, electronic flight bags (EFBs), cellphones and other electronic devices in aircraft cockpits,” association vice president of safety, security and regulation Doug Carr said yesterday. On Tuesday, Senate aviation subcommittee chairman Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) announced he planned to introduce legislation that would “prohibit pilots from using laptops and other personal devices during flight” as a result of the incident in which two pilots of Northwest Flight 188 overflew their destination, later asserting that they had been distracted by their laptops. Sen. Dorgan said he planned to exclude EFBs, but business aviation pilots are still concerned because many EFB platforms are actually tablet PCs. Additionally, the legislation could affect airborne usage of aviation applications on devices such as the iPhone. “We’re acutely aware of the critical operational and safety needs for these devices on the flight deck,” Carr said. He said that if such a proposal were offered, it would fall under the jurisdiction of the Senate Commerce Committee. “NBAA is meeting with that committee’s staff shortly to explain our concerns,” he added. “We’ll keep everyone advised on the issue following our meeting.”

Hello Geeks,

Just received this photo in my e-mail and after listening to the last podcast and the “Top 10″ list I thought you all may find it funny.

Love the podcast!

[I posted the photo at http://pic.gd/2fb087. It's hysterical. Be sure to enlarge the picture to see all the detail. Max.]

Max

Very interesting…..not sure if you guys have talked about this?

http://www.terrafugia.com/

If you’re wondering who’d be using the “standing room seats” in China, don’t forget that at Chinese New Year, there is a mass exodus of Chinese who are away from family travelling to be with them. Seats like these could allow poor farming/country types to travel to see family living in the cities rather than those in the cities having to come back out to the country.

Of course, one question is “How will these seats pass the impact test?” – imagine being in these seats during turbulence or in an other-wise survivable crash (eg: Turkish Airways in Schipol, Hudson River ditching, BA 777 landing short at Heathrow, etc).

As to using these seats, what more can I say than: no way in hell will I ever use one of these! YUK!

OK – back to listening to the podcast

Cheers,

Grant