Where do you draw the "entertainment" line in the cockpit?

[pilotdiscretion]

Listening to music or talk radio through your own headset leaves no incriminating evidence on the cvr, so that sounds acceptable.

The CVR is a very misunderstood piece of equipment for good reasons. We have little to no interaction with it and some in the industry feel that the less you know, the less you can mess with it when conducting shenanigans.

If the airplane you are flying was built in the past 20 years it will have a multi channel CVR. This means that it will record one stream for the cockpit area mic to pic up noises from the airplane. Three channels (four if you have two jumpseats) are dedicated to the intercoms. They record what each position hears and says into their boom mics. Other channels will be dedicated to comm radios on newer boxes. If you turn on the audio from a nav radio to identify a nav aid, the sounds are recorded on the individual pilots channel. If you plug an IPOD into the jumpseaters intercom then your obsession with the backstreet boys and show tunes is recorded. They know who listened to it and what they heard. Oxygen masks are also integrated in the system under the intercom channels.

If your curious about this go back and look at some NTSB CVR transcripts from the past five years and look at the identifiers along the left side of the page. It starts to make more sense how they came up with who said or heard what when you understand how the system works.

A few common misconceptions:

As the days go by and more airplanes roll off the assembly line more and more airplanes have 2 hour CVRs. If a 30 minute CVR breaks it's usually replaced by a 2 hour box because that's what gets produced as spare parts these days.

Every CVR has a battery back up, they last a couple of hours. If you pull the CVR breaker in the cockpit an audio tone is recorded on the CVR to tell investigators that the CVR is running on battery power. If you disable the CVR and have an accident nobody cares if you were innocent or if you used magical force powers like Yoda to save passengers lives, you're going down hard for trying to disable the box.

Saying "boy am I tired" before every landing doesn't work. NTSB investigations into fatigue are extensive and usually include interviews with your family and friends on your pre work habits. Not talking, yawning and heavy sighing are the signs of fatigue.

The CVR erase button in each cockpit doesn't not work when the airplane is weight off wheels.

 

[DrewBlows]

If the airplane you are flying was built in the past 20 years it will have a multi channel CVR. This means that it will record one stream for the cockpit area mic to pic up noises from the airplane. Three channels (four if you have two jumpseats) are dedicated to the intercoms. They record what each position hears and says into their boom mics. Other channels will be dedicated to comm radios on newer boxes. If you turn on the audio from a nav radio to identify a nav aid, the sounds are recorded on the individual pilots channel. If you plug an IPOD into the jumpseaters intercom then your obsession with the backstreet boys and show tunes is recorded. They know who listened to it and what they heard. Oxygen masks are also integrated in the system under the intercom channels.

What you say is true, but the CVR cannot hear your music through an adapter that feeds music directly into your headset.


As a side note, I really have no interest in watching a movie in flight. Not a safety of flight issue, just not interested.

 

[Dashmonster]

What about linking up on a game of Tiger Woods golf on the PSP with a passenger in the back? True story...Capt got his butt kicked too in 9 holes

 

[John Pennekamp]

The CVR also cannot be used in discipline of flight crews or presented as evidence in enforcement proceedings. Under any circumstances.

It kills me when you fly with someone who's "CVR paranoid". Like the guy who always says "runway in sight" at minimums when it's clear and a million. ask him why and he says "to get it on the CVR". Who cares?

 

[FishandFly]

The CVR also cannot be used in discipline of flight crews or presented as evidence in enforcement proceedings. Under any circumstances.

It kills me when you fly with someone who's "CVR paranoid". Like the guy who always says "runway in sight" at minimums when it's clear and a million. ask him why and he says "to get it on the CVR". Who cares?

I'll be darned. I flew with a guy that did that. I just figured he was slow, you know, mentally. And that there was some auto-response in his brain that made him react to the plane saying minimums.

 

[XJ-spartacus]

PD,

Your correct, but in most designs the manufacturers piggy back the jumpseater's jack directly off the REU. This means it is not one of the four channels. Those are usually the CA, FO, cockpit mic and the interphone/fa. So if you throw tunes in the jumpseater's plug, hypothetically it will not be recorded. Although I'm sure the NTSB will figure it out when your both singing perfect tempo with the spice girls.

-Spartacus

 

[John Pennekamp]

Where do you draw the "entertainment" line in the cockpit?

Strippers.

 

[Fred Rogers]

For me there is a difference between music and talk radio when it comes to catching radio calls (music=good, talk=bad).

As was said many times above, as long as it does not interfere. Who cares.

 

[TNHillbilly]

For me there is a difference between music and talk radio when it comes to catching radio calls (music=good, talk=bad).

As was said many times above, as long as it does not interfere. Who cares.

You need some talk radio!.. 770 RUSH...WAAAABC

 

[Fred Rogers]

You need some talk radio!.. 770 RUSH...WAAAABC

Oh Lord, I can about hear it in your cockpit when 770 is on. My liberal bones shiver... uuughh

I guess you have to cut the guy some slack, I mean he really IS on drugs.