Technically speaking this FA is doing her job (force you to turn it off). Remember the Santonio Holmes (2008 Superball MVP) event?

Putting on devil's advocate goalie-mask....

Maybe it's me but aren't all cell phones and all other electronic devices with an on off switch supposed to be turned off when the announcement is made and not turned on until the announcement is made?

How hard is it to comply with a very simple instruction?

Like most of you, I bring my own n/c headphones and yes, I do turn them off when told and I have been asked a few times if they were off and to show the f/a that the little red power light is off. Do I get mad? Do I think it's a power trip. No and no.

C'mon folks there are more important things in life (like watching your seatmate who refuses to turn off his phone because their e-mail is just oh, so important* get busted by the f/a cuz the phone rang during taxi

*sorry but if one can't live without e-mail for a given period of time (be it waiting until the wifi equipped a/c reaches altitude or until the end of the flight)......

they should not be flying. Or they should be flying a private jet whose crew does not enforce the rules.

(finished that for you )

I'm pretty sure you are, as most people understand the basis for the rule. Everything must be off due to interference from RF emitting sources. Whether you agree that this is an actual risk isn't the issue. I find it hard to believe you don't know what "off" means.

Ouch! I'm being honest about that, though. I don't know why I didn't think about standby mode not being "off." I suppose I just got used to putting the computer on standby, and I continued that habit during flights.

Now that you mention it, my BlackBerry (and Palm, before that) were never completely "off," either. Sure, I turn the radio off, but the only way I know how to completely turn off my BlackBerry is to pull the battery, and I never do that what I fly.

I asked about this when I worked at the local FSDO (I worked in IT, not in any sort of regulatory or enforcement capacity.) The answer I was given is that noise canceling headsets are not prohibited during any phase of flight by the FAA, (and their use is actually encouraged for hearing protection.) In fact, the FAA has often given guidance to aircraft operators (commercial and private) about the use of such headsets during all phases of flight. How many of us pilots would be in trouble if they were? One example of FAA guidance on the issue is:

http://www.faa.gov/other_visit/aviat.../info07001.pdf

This is an "info" from the FAA in 2007 about how using noise canceling headsets could possibly cause a pilot or other crew member to miss a particular noise. (I pointed this one out in particular because it was the only one I found that cautioned about a possible negative effect.) The actual "enforcement" was left up to the particular operators.

There is even a TSO'd microphone (TSO is not required but an airline could require it) for use with the Bose Quiet Comfort Headphones in the cockpit by an aircraft operator:

http://www.uflymike.com/id8.html

(See here for a good discussion on TSOs: http://answers.google.com/answers/th...id/542619.html)

Now the FAA also does not restrict an operator/airline from setting some sort of standard about their use--so saying it's against the FAA regulations or FAR's might not be correct, but if an airline has a policy about it, that makes it kind of a moot point. When two organizations have the ability to say no...only one needs to say no.

After saying all of that - The bottom line to me really comes down to simplicity and efficiency for cabin crews. I think it would be a nightmare for cabin crews to memorize some list of approved devices versus non-approved devices. Restricting the headsets during use also minimizes the "well if he can use those, I should be able to use my phone..." arguments. I don't think it really hurts any of us to have our noise canceling headsets, laptops, or phones, off during takeoff and landing--It is such a short phase of flight.

That is *exactly* what I thought this thread was about when I saw the title. It's the only reason I clicked on it. Perhaps a new thread title might be more appropriate?

Someone once told me that the rules in Europe are different, implying that there really isn't much risk. Does anyone know the rules in Europe (or Asia)?

TIA

Well, that's the intention, but the effect is debatable.

What's funny is there really is no "off" on most, if not all, PDAs. You can turn off the screen, but the PDA stays on. The only way to turn it off is to remove the battery.

Once in awhile I'll stick my phone in my bag and forget that it's on until I retrieve it after landing. Heck, I did this a few days ago on DEN-SAN, or maybe it was SAN-DEN. I've done it on international flights. Never intentionally.

I know what the rule is, and I'm not saying I didn't violate it. But I can't be the only person who accidentially leaves things on, either. And no plane crash has been attributed to interference from electronic devices in all the years we've had them. So what does that tell you?

It tells you that a phone being on won't cause crash-inducing interference every time.

It does not tell you that a phone being on will never cause any harmful interference with aircraft operations.

I've often wondered about Kindles. Most of the time, I just flick the switch on mine which puts it into a standby mode where it displays a picture of some old author - does that use some juice? You can hold the power switch to turn it all the way off, but I'd be surprised if people really do that because Kindles take a surprisingly long time to boot.

I don't think that uses power. At least not according to the marketing materials. Supposedly it does not cost any battery power to maintain the image on the screen, since the ink particles stick magnetically and don't require continuous current. If so, then I think it counts as "completely off" since it's not using any power or doing anything, and clearing the screen doesn't actually make a difference.

While the reason is stated otherwise - I am pretty sure they dont want NC headphones in use so that you can hear announcements - and in the case of emergency - instructions.

Make sense.

s

That's what I thought, although of course I've been told to "turn off" and stow the device.