Cockpit Video
 

It was only a matter of time...

Aren't there more important issues for the FAA to worry about?

If they didn't spend so much time and effort trying to yank Pilot Cert's, what the heck would they do with themselves?! How would they justify their paychecks :mad:

Pay Attention, Youngsters!
 

People get fired for this every couple of years...as innocuous as it seems, the FAA will nail you to the wall IF they can ID you.

The folks who get busted invariably turn themsleves in by posting stuff on public internet sites...usually with their real name :rolleyes: And yes the FAA can subpoena internet organizations to get your name if needed.

Any pictures that are obviously below 10,000' should be kept private...

And No, the FAA doesn't have anything better to do, unless it's a page-by-page audit of my Jepp manual on a SLC-CMH run :rolleyes:

I know a couple guys who got busted by a video. Not a good way to go.

We've all done it...just don't YouTube or MySpace it...

I find it amusing how every FAA inspector who used to be a pilot tells some long story about why they left flying the line to work there and how they needed to be home every night because of their family, blah blah blah. Like there is an acceptable reason for turning traitor on your own people.

And it was funny to hear the bunch of them at the FSDO recently all lamenting about the cutbacks in federal spending and how they might not get the $200 per hour pay they have gotten used to. Ironically I have never gotten a straight answer from any FAA inspector about any questions I have had but they all seem pretty sure of themselves in the jumpseat. It's just disgusting.

Those who can't do, inspect. :p

I'm not condoning putting safety at risk........ but I do believe they'll still need to prove that you took the picture, it could have been taken by someone in the jump....Now, if they wanna nail you with that, well there gonna need to prove that you gave them permission, or even knew about it!!!

Cockpits also are supposed to be sterile environments, free of distractions, and federal regulations prohibit pilots from being engaged in any activity below 10,000 feet that is not conducive to flights


from the article.....is this a reg?

Yes

§ 121.542 Flight crewmember duties.

(a) No certificate holder shall require, nor may any flight crewmember perform, any duties during a critical phase of flight except those duties required for the safe operation of the aircraft. Duties such as company required calls made for such nonsafety related purposes as ordering galley supplies and confirming passenger connections, announcements made to passengers promoting the air carrier or pointing out sights of interest, and filling out company payroll and related records are not required for the safe operation of the aircraft.
(b) No flight crewmember may engage in, nor may any pilot in command permit, any activity during a critical phase of flight which could distract any flight crewmember from the performance of his or her duties or which could interfere in any way with the proper conduct of those duties. Activities such as eating meals, engaging in nonessential conversations within the cockpit and nonessential communications between the cabin and cockpit crews, and reading publications not related to the proper conduct of the flight are not required for the safe operation of the aircraft.
(c) For the purposes of this section, critical phases of flight includes all ground operations involving taxi, takeoff and landing, and all other flight operations conducted below 10,000 feet, except cruise flight.

Some guys at here got some paid time off while they investigated a youtube video of them (you could hear the flight number in the background) taken by a F/A in the jumpseat who recorded them without their knowledge. Lucky for them she confessed.

This is an important issue.

I'm glad to see the FAA initiating an investigation into this. The industry used to have a fair amount of respect and dignity associated with it. Now, especially after looking at many of those youtube videos, it is hard to distinguish between a professional and a bunch of high school kids.

As I understand in the 91 regs (91.21), a.) it only applies to IFR, and b.) it is at the discretion of PIC. Can someone confirm?

Yeah, like pilots texting while flying...oh...wait, they do that anyway!!

How could you not know about it? Even in larger cockpits it would be difficult to not see someone videotaping.

With "ignorance is no excuse for the law", the feds will probably question why the prohibition of electronic devices was not briefed prior to departure. Either way, you as the PIC are ultimately responsible for the safety of the flight, thus everything falls on your shoulders. You have to begin thinking like a lawyer in addition to thinking like a captain.

At the very least you could see what your company SOP's have to say about use and storage of electronic devices. If your company's SOP's prohibit you from using a camera below 10,000' and you violate that prohibition, then you will probably be subject to a violation by the FAA. Since a carrier's SOP has to be approved by the FAA, if you violate it then you are also violating an FAA approved document.

As opposed to upgrading their antique ATC system and creating safe duty regs to fight pilot fatigue? I think you were missing my point.

And please, don't turn this into a FlightInfo thread about those "dang young inexperienced pilots with ipods, hairgel, and no hats."

The 91 reg covers electronic devices in the cockpit...this is at the PIC's discretion.

In 121, the PIC has no discretion on that. Also 121 requires that no non-essential activities or conversations occur below 10,000' (or cruise altitude if lower than 10,000). That is the bigger issue in 121.

I don't need to. The subject matter of this particular thread already implies that they are the group in question.

Thanks, Rick.

I've flown with PLENTY of old balding 20 year captains that take pics and film things when they shouldn't. This does not apply only to the young guys. In this case maybe these vids do because a lot of shinny headed, blazer and hat wearing capts don't know how to upload a video. Just my two cents. No need to sterotype who does what.

It is amazing the one sided narrow focused vision of the FAA. It is perfectly ok for a manager pilot at American to use a cell phone while taxiing; but this is a big no-no. We had to remind a jumpseating FAA inspector a couple years back to turn his cell phone off.

And I see just as many older pilots not wearing bus-driver hats as younger pilots. (I do wear my hat in case you want to attack me)

Therein lies the problem. In this case videotaping is one thing, the other is how dumb do you have to be to post those videos on the internet?

wow.. airliners.net's photographers will have a lot of explaining to do.... Everyone's names are posted, and there are thousands of pictures taken from the cockpit below 10,000.

Turning traitor?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maxfli5o (Post 475967)

wow.. airliners.net's photographers will have a lot of explaining to do.... Everyone's names are posted, and there are thousands of pictures taken from the cockpit below 10,000.

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I've wondered about this myself... Many are in foreign countries where the regs may be more lax, but the shots on short final obviously made by crew members always get my attention because they seem like such a good way to get yourself in a lot of trouble with the company and FAA-types.

What about taking pics in the ramp area of aircraft? Maybe I'm paranoid, but I haven't done this because I'm worried some TSA guy will bust me for it. Thoughts?

Ok, maybe scallywag is more appropriate

Last time I checked, taking pictures on the ramp didn't make you a terrorist. Besides, who cares what they think/say?

As for the videos from the cockpits, it won't break my heart if there is one less video of someone rotating to the Top Gun theme.

I remember the episode from mythbusters where they amplified every cell phone frequency and it did nothing to the navigation systems. I find it hard to believe that a video camera will throw off the navigation in an airplane. Think of all the frequencies that are around us right now. Think of all the people on airplanes that don't turn off their phones or electronics. Do ALL of you turn off your phones every time you step onto the plane? The only thing that could be affected would be the magnetic compass...who uses that until *something* hits the fan? (unless you have a regular DG).

If the bad guys just had to turn on their phone or video camera during TO/Landing, we'd be in trouble.

Well, If you are going to post at least make sure they can't identify you! :D Seriously though, if you look there are very few decent shots from inside a US airliner while it's landing or taking off, and it seems they are disappearing, so people must be getting the message.

Although, LOL, one of my favorite saying they reiterated to us in ground school is that, "Someone, is ALWAYS watching!" Here is my favorite illustration of that, one of ours getting his picture taken, as he is taking a picture of his landing!

Photos: Canadair CL-600-2B19 Regional Jet CRJ-100ER Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

There are many reasons for not allowing electronic devices. It first started when the FCC wasn't sure of the effect. Then when they determined most devices would be negligible they allowed them above 10,000. The fear was that they would be distracting or in the case of music players, people would be unable to hear safety announcements.
As for cell phones, my understanding is that when a cell phone is on, is occupies a channel at a nearby cell tower. If it is within range of multiple towers, such as in the air, I think it limits the amount of users on the network. Beside, when I have forgotten to turn my phone off, I've noticed it usually says "No Network" when it is in the air. Also, when it is working, it creates an extremely annoying buzzing in the headset. Anybody else noticed this? Like when you put a phone next to a speaker and receive a call.

LOL you are right...not much to add after that picture.

I do know of some pilots that have gotten in trouble due to some pictures on the web and some archives from liveatc.net.

Oh well...keep it safe!


TI:eek:

Oh that picture is priceless. Hope the FAA don't find out about that picture.

I'm not sure that there is much they can do on that one.

That photo is brilliant! "Candid" at it's best!

The photographer (the one on the ground) that took that picture is actually a former student of mine, and I do believe he deems it his greatest achievement in life so far.

As for still photographs in the cockpit there is always plausible deniability. Apparently we are all to young to remember the days of film photography. There is no way for the FAA to prove that the picture was taken with a digital camera from a pilot seat and not a wind-up camera from the jumpseat. As for films, it would be hard to say that someone in the jumpseat had the crank camera used to capture the Titanic’s departure and you didn’t notice.