{"id":4555,"date":"2015-03-18T23:02:57","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T23:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/?p=4555"},"modified":"2015-03-18T23:27:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T23:27:53","slug":"selfies-in-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/?p=4555","title":{"rendered":"Selfies in Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given all the hullabaloo regarding selfies in flight brought on by this incident<\/a>, I thought I’d share my thoughts on a few things.<\/p>\n

First, the actual flight that crashed had no record of the pilot taking pictures. \u00a0 That happened on the flight BEFORE the crash, meaning he went up, his pax took a bunch of flash pictures at night in bad weather (not smart), but managed to land safely. \u00a0The NTSB is assuming the behavior on the previous flight happened on the incident flight as well. \u00a0 From the article,. what is evident is that the pilot took off in bad weather at night, became disoriented, stalled the aircraft, and hit the ground at a high rate and angle. \u00a0 The hubbub is a perfect storm of the NTSB engaging in raw speculation, a public conditioned for decades to fear airplanes, and a popular trend in social media.<\/p>\n

Second, after some research (granted, not \u00a0much) there is nothing in the Part 91 FARs prohibiting use of\u00a0a camera in the cockpit, either by the pilot or passenger. \u00a0 It may be a bad idea in certain situations, but it’s one pursued at the pilot’s discretion, and that’s how it should be.<\/p>\n

Aviators\u00a0go through extensive training and live under the banhammer of the FAA to achieve one primary goal: \u00a0The safety of the non-participating public from an activity that we do voluntarily. \u00a0 It is the duty of the pilot not to subject people or property to unnecessary risk. \u00a0Every aviator makes that call on every flight, and the choice to do something or not do something based on risk are what we like to call personal minimums. \u00a0 For instance, if the airspace is crowded, the radio is busy, or I’m\u00a0otherwise in a situation of high pilot workload, pulling out a camera is probably not a good idea, and in those situations,\u00a0taking photos is below my personal minimums.<\/p>\n

However, if I’m cruising in an empty sky, in contact with ATC, and at a high enough altitude, I think it’s OK to take a few shots. \u00a0 After all, it’s the only way I have to share what’s outside my window with all of you.<\/p>\n

Update: \u00a0I’d like to point you to this extremely informative article<\/a> by Bob Collins<\/a>, which says pretty much what I said, except a whole lot clearer and better.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given all the hullabaloo regarding selfies in flight brought on by this incident, I thought I’d share my thoughts on a few things. First, the actual flight that crashed had no record of the pilot taking pictures. \u00a0 That happened on the flight BEFORE the crash, meaning he went up, his pax took a bunch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4555"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4558,"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4555\/revisions\/4558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjohn.openbar.com\/airplane\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}