Do I really need to use Airplane Mode on my iPad or iPhone Pilot?
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One of the most common questions we hear as pilots is, “Do I really need to put my phone in Airplane Mode?” The airlines have been saying yes for years, but many travelers think this advice is outdated and it’s safe to ignore. Is that true in a small airplane? And what is Airplane Mode anyway? Here’s our advice.
What is Airplane Mode?
Airplane Mode was designed as a shortcut to allow airline passengers to press one button and easily disable wireless radios on an iPhone or iPad before takeoff. It’s included on all Apple devices, regardless of whether your device includes a cellular connection or is Wi-Fi only. The Airplane Mode toggle can be accessed from several locations:
- Swipe down from the top right of the screen and press the airplane button at the top left of the Control Center
- Go to the main Settings app and turn on the Airplane Mode switch at the top of the list
Turning on Airplane Mode turns off all radios (including the cellular connection) except for Bluetooth—you can’t make calls, but you can listen to music, play games, watch videos, and use other apps that don’t require network or phone connections. Pilots using a device like Sentry or Stratus in the cockpit, which requires Wi-Fi, can turn Wi-Fi back on after enabling Airplane Mode to connect to these accessories. Also, your device will automatically remember this preference and leave Wi-Fi (or Bluetooth) on the next time you enable Airplane Mode, meaning you’ll only need to do that once.
The one exception is that Airplane Mode does NOT disable the internal GPS (if your iPad has one). That was the case many years ago, but it is no longer. You can turn Airplane Mode on and still navigate in ForeFlight.
What do the FARs say?
Next, let’s look at the rules that apply here. First, FAR 91.21 covers all portable electronic devices—not just cell phones—being used on any aircraft operating under an air carrier certificate (think airlines) or under IFR. No portable electronic devices can be used in these cases unless “the operator of the aircraft has determined it will not cause interference with the navigation or communication system.” The FAR uses plain language in stating, “the determination may be made by the pilot in command,” and the FAA has been clear that sophisticated testing equipment is not required to satisfy this FAR.
There’s also AC 91.21-1D, which expands on FAR 91.21. This AC offers suggestions for evaluating portable electronic devices and clarifies that cell phones and LTE-enabled iPads, while prohibited from use in flight by FCC regulations, are allowed to be used in aircraft while on the ground for picking up a clearance or filing a flight plan.
Neither of these FAA documents explicitly ban the use of cell phones or celluar-enabled iPads, but the FCC does in 22.925: “When any aircraft leaves the ground, all cellular telephones on board that aircraft must be turned off.” More practically, it’s clear the main concern from regulators is electromagnetic interference (EMI), and in our experience, we’ve almost never seen any interference from an operating cell phone. However, it’s worth pointing out that the chance of interference isn’t zero—hold your iPhone up to the compass and see what happens.
However, even if there’s no EMI, there are good reasons why you should consider using Airplane Mode.
First, consider why the FCC bans the use of cellular devices—it’s really about the cell towers on the ground, not the airplane instruments. Airborne cellular transmitters have line of sight to many more towers than a typical phone on the ground, which means your iPhone at 2500 feet can easily swamp channels on multiple towers. This isn’t good for the performance of the rest of the cell network and for everyone on the ground. Some people even think carriers temporarily blacklist phones that connect to lots of towers. If you’ve ever tried to get your emails while your airline flight was on approach but found performance to be really bad, that might be what’s going on.
Secondly, Airplane Mode is much more efficient for your phone or iPad battery. This is mostly because your devices won’t be using extra power to search for cell towers or trying to coordinate connections with towers that are barely reachable. Leaving LTE on for the entire flight can easily consume half your battery life on a two-hour flight.
Lastly, Airplane Mode should make your apps perform better. Instead of trying to make network requests that will most likely time out when you barely have any bandwidth, network requests won’t happen at all, and your apps should just fall back to being offline. Anecdotally, we’ve also seen more reliable performance with external devices like ADS-B receivers when cellular data is turned off.
Does that mean you should never use your cell phone in flight? No. In a worst-case scenario, like a total communications failure in flight, we wouldn’t hesitate to try calling ATC on the phone. It has happened, and it has worked. You might have to beg forgiveness with the FCC, but that’s a small price to pay.
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John,
Is it true that by leaving your cell phone on in normal mode that should you go down it may assist rescue forces to track where you were flying??
Ted
That’s theoretically true, if you’re talking about iOS Crash Detection: https://support.apple.com/en-us/104959.
But I think it’s a stretch, and the downsides outweigh that potential benefit.
Actually, an accident report from the French Safety Investigation Organization (BEA, https://bea.aero) mention an occurence of an airplane lost on short final at Auxerre (LFLA, France), at night with terrible weather.
The rescue team have been unable to locate the aircraft for several hours. Should the phone of the pilot been turned on, the rescue team would have located the aircraft the report said and help the pilot, unfortunately found dead later.
I’ve been unable to find the report, sorry for that. I’m writing from memory.
Claude
The cell towers can help find a lost airplane was my thought.
I have a question, but first here’s background. I fly a 1946 Aeronca Champ (no engine-driven electrical system). For years I’ve been using a Stratus for ADS-B In with my iPad Mini connecting via wireless to the Stratus and showing traffic on Foreflight on the Mini. (I also have my iPhone belt-clipped to me and a full-sized iPad on board in a backpack.) Sometimes the Mini loses the Stratus connection and fumbles around seeing other wireless devices, thus not getting reconnected to the Stratus unless I toggle the Stratus and “Wi-Fi” on and off—which is a distraction.
I’ve been wondering if there is some way to get the Mini to only look for the Stratus; I’ve already selected “off” to the “Ask to Join Networks” and “never” to “Auto-Join Hotspot.” Neither of those steps is effective; the searching still happens if the Mini loses the Stratus.
So my question is: if I put all three devices in airplane mode, might that help (i) avoid the disconnects and (ii) if a disconnect still happens, get back to the Stratus more readily? (I had thought putting the Mini in airplane mode would block the connection to the Stratus.) Thanks.
I have had a lot of problems with an iPad disconnecting from Stratus
I bought a Sentry to see if it was better, it is.
I now have 2 iPads one connected to each
They “seem” to disconnect when I get close to cities
I decided to use Airplane mode, neither has disconnected since
It is not yet statistically significant, but….
Eugene
My anecdotal experience is about 20ish years ago you could see ILS interference from cellphones on in the back. You’d call the flight attendants and ask them to find out who was yacking on their phone and they would call back with a culprit. But the technology of the phones has changed so much, and GPS approaches are much more prevalent, I had not seen it in years when I took my Covid buyout early retirement!
Leidos Flight Services can send various warnings (e.g. SIGMETS), reminders, etc. to your phone. If airplane mode is on, you won’t get these messages while in the air.
I’m pretty sure I remember NASA performing extensive testing (at the airliner boneyard) and they determined that the modern “devices” caused negligible to nil electromagnetic interference to onboard avionic systems. I’m searching google to find the report. On most airline flights, the flight crew have their “devices” active in the cockpit. I’ve carried my Stratus & iPad on the airliner and tracked the entire flight.
I’m not out to dissuade your recommendations – I’m just pondering the subject out loud? I most interested in scientific analysis rather than geriatric legalese from the ancient rule-writers at the 3-letter agencies?
There is a fourth reason to use airplane mode: Eliminate distractions. The very first step when I start my preflight inspection is to put my phone into airplane mode. That marks my transition to “pilot mode” where everyday activities and interruptions end and focused concentration on flying begins.
Yes there were studies, but AFAIK not by NASA. A CMU PhD student monitored cell phone usage in the early 2000’s (2002 and 2003, mostly). He and his advisor published a bunch of sensational articles about how airplanes would fall out of the sky due to the large amount of cell phones that were left on during commercial operations, many in overhead bins. They found tens of phones turned on at any one time. At the time, and what I have been saying for two decades, is they PROVED cell phone use is safe, from an FAA perspective. Planes have NOT been falling out of the sky, and they showed there is a lot of mobile phone radiation on aircraft.
As a former CTO of the FCC, when I do my briefing, I say, “It is not an FAA rule, but I cannot claim ignorance of FCC rules. You need to put your phone in airplane mode. If we are in an emergency, or I ask you to, please TURN ON your phone.” There have been a few cases where rescue was able to find a downed aircraft by finding phones.
5G, and more especially 6G, is likely to eliminate the FCC limitation. On the 5G side, low power on-board pico cells will keep phones from irradiating 500 square miles of cell towers.
So, please turn off the phones before you take off, and feel free to use them if your radio breaks, you need to call the FBO, or you are going to be doing a forced landing.
6g doesn’t exist yet, and won’t until at least 2030.