wxguy

No; it's hard-wired. The output of the #1VHF radio is routed by wire (when enabled) to the passenger entertainment system and comes up on "Channel 9" or "From the Flight Deck" in the legacy systems.

When the passenger entertainment systems were first removed from the A320 fleet and streaming entertainment installed, I asked a UA executive about the future of "From the Flight Deck." He explained they were exploring how to integrate the audio stream into the wireless system, but had no information on its progress nor confidence on it being feasible from both a technical and certification standpoint. That was many years ago, and I have had no update since then, so I can't even say if its still being considered for the future.

fumje

Thanks for the information. That makes more sense.

I would love to have Ch9 over wifi (presumably wrapped into the "Private Screening" offering). I suppose nothing else in Private Screening is live, though, so perhaps that is complicated to integrate.

Austin787

UA46 FRA-IAH flown by pmCO 772 on 12/31 had channel 9 turned on.

StuckinITH

Can you share how you found it on that plane? I flew on one recently and was not able to find it on the screen.

BThumme

UA71 EWR-NRT 12/20/18 77W: Asked the purser to ask the pilots if they could turn it on. Purser disappeared and never came back.
UA 838 NRT-SFO 12/22/18 77W: Asked the purser to ask the pilots if they could turn it on. Purser disappeared and never came back.

Austin787

Open the inflight map.

StuckinITH

Thank you! I will try to remember that the next time I fly on the pmCO 772. It does not happen too frequently as ORD is the easiest airport to reach for my International Long Hauls.

thejaredhuang

UA1241 LAX-IAH , fa claimed it wasn't available on plane while I had the page open on ife
UA5 IAH-LHR

sincx

UA862, HKG-SFO, 77W.
Asked FA about Channel 9, she came back saying the pilots said it should be on, and Channel 9 is indeed on. 👍

And yea, the FA on my flight also didn't know that it's available on the 77W (she thought that the new planes didn't have them), but I explained it was an option on the entertainment system.

zspitzer

UA90, EWR-TLV, 77W
UA85, TLV-EWR, 772

Didn't bother asking on UA90, had a long weather delay so it was late, and people get weird heading to Israel.

On UA85 asked the purser, she told me they didn't have it. Decided explaining she was incorrect wasn't going to get anyone anywhere, least of all me.

UAL250

Forgot to report a week ago:

IAD-IAH on Feb 8th, UA 762, B763 ^

TexasAggie02

UAL250

Always awesome when it works that easy, especially on the intl ones ^

zspitzer

Posted too soon (posting from wifi on N78005 745nm from EWR). Checked again when we hit North America and found it on. Perhaps the purser asked and the crew flipped it on after all. Would have appreciated being told it was getting switched on since I might have gotten to hear the excitement of EuroControl. But better than nothing, and perhaps more FA's who learn that it's still a thing! So I'll revise my for todays UA85 into a .

bocastephen

2/4 UA7 IAH NRT - PMCO777 so I don't think it was available

2/12 UA838 NRT SFO ^ - 777-300ER - on from boarding, so I assumed it was left on from the previous flight and the new Capt was unaware and didn't turn it off, or, possibly he was a major Ch9 fan and turned it on before boarding, but I call slim chance on that one. I will this give this crew a ^ - When I can listen to NRT controllers, they are usually very clear and concise with minimal accents, but our tower and departure controllers that day had such heavy accents and spoke in a monotone so that I could barely make out 5% of what they were saying, but our crew was able to pick up every detail without asking for a repeat.