Comments on: Do you listen to music while flying ?

By: Plastic Pilot | Music for flying

Plastic Pilot | Music for flying — Sat, 17 May 2008 18:01:41 +0000

[...] comments on the “Do you listen to music while flying ?” post shown, many pilots like to fly with music, so I prepared a short list of flying related [...]

By: PlasticPilot

PlasticPilot — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:22:14 +0000

Four comments in two days – wow ! It seems that in-flight music is a hot topic.

@Jason: the “no spoken words” points is a good one. I missed it, thank you for that.

@Matthew: if I may ask, does your wife have a mute function ? Mine does not .

@Jason & Jess: interesting that you both think that music actually help to IMPROVE your flying. I know that for day work in the office. In silent environments, I tend to focus on “trying” to catch a sound.

@Julien: in Europe you can use the VOLMET frequencies to get information on a wide area (at light aircraft range). Typically, the Geneva VOLMET broadcasts metars of Geneva, Zurich, Basle, Milano, Nice, Paris, and so on. This is more than enough. I never tried to place a call in-flight, but under some circumstances my passengers tried to do it.

By: Julien

Julien — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:22:29 +0000

I think the reason manufacturers say the sole purpose of adapters is to make it easier to get a clearance on the phone before departure is to avoid liability if it is ever proven that using a mobile phone in flight was a contributing factor to an accident.

In countries where XM weather is not available (read: outside North America), being able to call an automatic weather station on the phone can come in handy, especially when the weather is closing in and a decision needs to be made as to where to divert. This is also possible using short text messages. Of course you can also ask a controller for the same information, but that depends on the controller’s workload.

Phone comes in handy also for ringing small airfields and asking the local lineman to get into his car and drive to the airfield because you’re on your way and need fuel.

So that was my take on placing calls from the cockpit in flight. I cannot see any good reason for receiving calls in-flight though.

By: Jess Sightler

Jess Sightler — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:31:18 +0000

I haven’t listened to music, but my headset does have a nice adapter for music input or a cell phone. The cell interface has only been used before departure to open a flight plan once (short leg into a towered field, but flight school rules required a flight plan… easiest way to open was on the ground before departure via phone).

I tend to agree about the distractions, but some of the music interfaces work well enough to where they may actually help rather than distract, IMO.

By: Matthew Stibbe

Matthew Stibbe — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:05:56 +0000

When I flew PA28s I sometimes listened to Radio 4 on the ADF and the Cirrus I fly now has a line in. I haven’t used it myself because a friend flew with his iPod plugged in and it was a bit disconcerting to be on short finals with Dire Straits playing (his choice of music, not mine!) However, on a long solo flight I’d seriously consider taking one along simply to pass the time. However, my wife LOVES listening to her iPod in flight. She sings along to it really loudly while she enjoys the view!

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:11:25 +0000

I never listened to much music in flight until I started taking longer trips. I’ve used an iPod hooked into the intercom as well as XM radio in the Cirrus. I really enjoy it – if I am experienced in the airplane I will even leave it on through out the landing assuming my workload is not too high ( I usually turn it down a bit).

Only once have I listened to music with a system that didn’t auto-mute it for radio traffic. In that case I just kept the music volume nice and low.

I also used to avoid music with much spoken word in it, but eventually found it was easy to recognize ATC voices vs. voices on the music.

I am the kind of person that actually tends to think better with music in the background (maybe I’m weird) so I’ve never had an issue with it being distracting, but other’s mileage may vary.