Hacker News Reader

Comment by nivla | Hacker News Reader

Interesting but I am not sure if it is a good idea replacing paper manuals with electronic devices. How useful are these manuals during an emergency? What if the device starts glitching or is low on battery? How much interference can these devices cause, given the current rule is to switch off all electronic devices during takeoff and landing? Would they be put on "Airplane Mode"?

View on HN

1) I believe that finding anything on a digital device is quicker in an emergency than looking it up on 38 pound pile of paper;

2) To prevent failures, take a redundant secondary device (anyways, each co-pilot would/should have one).

3) "Airplane mode" would be perfectly fine, as the device should store all manuals locally anyways, and need a connection only to be updated with newest content.

Personally, I'd say that something like a Kindle would be better than the Surface for this particular task.

I hope you mean kindle fire, because the base kindle would be too slow to anyone to quickly flip through the pages.

I read on the recent story about FAA regulations that current cockpit iPads are on all the time during takeoff and landing, although I suspect they'll be in airplane mode whenever they're on the plane.

Presumably in case of an emergency, the pilot would always be able to call the control tower to confirm whatever details, even if their tablet was dead, so I don't think it would be a major issue.

AFAIK, Most of these procedures are to be learned by the pilots prior to being certified to pilot a particular aircraft.

IF something went wrong, however, like a pilot panics, or his tablet dies (and forgot his charger), he is still able to radio for help.

I believe the bulk of what goes on the tablet is tons and tons of charts. Airport layouts, maps, etc.

On the contrary, written checklists are gone through even for routine tasks, e.g., every takeoff and every landing.

When there is more than one pilot, the pilot not flying the plane usually reads the checklist out loud.

But in an emergency there are checklists made up of "memory items" which are tested every year at recurrent training.

Devices don't cause much interference with these machines, same as hospitals. Doctors always have their phones on. Within about 1 metre might cause some interference. Maybe.

I heard that the reason they tell you to turn it off in flight is so that if something goes wrong people panic less. Not sure how true that is though.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com