V-Flyer

Does anyone know why VS turn off the IFE completely about 45 mins prior to landing?

Whilst I appreciate the crew have to secure the cabin, collect headphones, pull people out of the toilets after the seat belts signs have been illuminated etc, it would be nice to have the skymap left on to watch the descent.

Other airlines manage to leave their skymaps, on so why not VS? [:?]

Trust me if it were left to the crew we would love for you to have the IFE on right until it's time to get off the a/c. Unfortunately the CAA say we have to have it turned off. Other airlines from different countries have different regulations, hence why some of them leavetheir systems on.
The last 40 mins of the flight are very busy for us, so depending on how full the a/c is I usually turn off the IFE at about 30 mins prior to landing to give the crew time to collect all the headsets, try to stuff them all back into recycling bags then secure the cabin, toilets, galleys etc as well as reconciling duty free bars. Unfortuntley with our IFE systems there is no way to leave just the skymap on, you have to turn the whole system off. It would be great if the map could be left on, but there is no option for us to do this. What I do is play the arrivals video until the landing gear goes down, so at least you have something to watch up until about 5 mins from touchdown.

Thanks for the prompt reply. The arivals video is better than nothing but as one is not allowed to wear headphones its a bit of a waste of time.

Originally posted by virginboy747
Trust me if it were left to the crew we would love for you to have the IFE on right until it's time to get off the a/c. Unfortunately the CAA say we have to have it turned off. Other airlines from different countries have different regulations, hence why some of them leavetheir systems on.

Thanks for the input here. Certainly EK have their IFE on from when you board the plane to arriving at the gate. They do of course take the headsets half an hour prior or so to landing, but if you have your own then you can continue to listen as well as watch.

Cheers, Howard

Originally posted by Jeffers555
Thanks for the prompt reply. The arivals video is better than nothing but as one is not allowed to wear headphones its a bit of a waste of time.

IIRC, if you have your own headphones then you should be able to still listen to it

One assumes that the CAA consider headphones a trip hazard.

The best combination I've seen is the bulkead screens showing the map whilst the seat back IFE was showing outside camera views (only ever seen this on Airbus flight strangely)

I once took a MyTravel flight to Barbados and the IFE was turned off for landing but you could still watch the outside camera. This meant that we could watch the landing in our seatback TV's from the view of the camera on the front of the plane (an A330-300 I believe)

We were on the VS075 Virginia Plane yesterday and the skymap was on from boarding to disembarking, I wonder if it is to do with the entertainment system onboard.

Sometimes for some unknown reason, usually on the NOVA system, even when the IFE is turned off, the skymap pops up on random screens, so some seats have the seatmap for take-off and landing. Not sure why this is and the engineers have never explained it to me.
As for the arrivals video jeffers555 it is only music no speaking so you dont need headphones. It just shows video of the places that we fly to.
The reaosn we take the headphones is indeed because they are a trip hazard and also if you needed to get out quickly for any reason you'd still be attached to the seat if you jumped up suddenly and would slow people down in an evacuation. The same reason you shouldn't have a blanket covering your seatbelt.

I didn't actually realise it's an arrival video - I just thought it was the same one that plays when you are boarding. Funnily enough it's always annoyed me when it played as it felt like the CC were setting the flight for the next load of PAX before the current lot had even left! Also, it's a damn fuzzy quality video.

The quality does vary, especially when the tapes get a bit worn! Yes we have seperate boarding and arrivals videos. Also there is one arrivals video for flights back into the UK and one for arrivals overseas. What you may find is that sometimes crew forget to swap the boarding and arrivals video over so they get played at the wrong time, but at the end of the day they both just play music with different images of our destinations etc.

I just want to say THANK YOU Virginboy747 for all your professional insight.

I love your posts, and am very glad you're here!

Originally posted by bardgal
I just want to say THANK YOU Virginboy747 for all your professional insight.

I love your posts, and am very glad you're here!

Hear Hear!

Nick

No worries, treat me as your oracle lol!

VS using tapes? How long have DVD's been around?

Switching the IFE off so far from landing cannot be a CAA thing as other UK airlines do not do this. Some even play music on landing.

Can you tell me which ones, and I'll see if I know anyone who works for them and ask them why they're allowed to keep their IFE on. I know that us, BA, Frist Choice and Thomson have to turn ours off, but anyone got any experience with other UK carriers? I'll email our safety department to clarify and let you know what they come back with.

Ok have got an answer from our safety department regarding why we turn our IFE off for take-off and landing.

Basically the CAA state that best practice is to have the IFE turned off and headsets removed. If we were to deviate from this policy we would need to complete a full risk assessment to illustrate to the authority that it is safe to keep the IFE on during take-off and landing and that in doing so we are not affecting the ability of passengers or crew to evacuate the aircraft.
The only other airline that has confirmed that it keeps the IFE on at this stage is ANZ, who carried out a whole lot of evacuation trials in order to get this approved with the NZ CAA. No other UK carriers have carried out this risk assessment so none of them should have their IFE on for landing.
Hope that makes it a bit clearer.

Great information Virginboy 747, thanks for that!

Was turned off an hour and 15 out yesterday morning. I think the CSS was fairly efficient as the Y class lights were turned on shockingly early as well.

Sadly the map was not kept on either but it was during take off at MCO.

1 hr 15 is ridiculously early to turn it off. 30 - 35 mins is just about right.

Thanks for the info again virginboy.

Interestingly, on recent Virgin America flights - their excellent 'Red' IFE system with 20 channels of live TV, plus films, music and games was on from the moment you sat in your seat, right up to stopping at the gate at the other end. [y][y]

Not only that, as soon as we touched down, a crew member announced that mobile phones could be used. [n]

Nick

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Thanks for the info again virginboy.

Interestingly, on recent Virgin America flights - their excellent 'Red' IFE system with 20 channels of live TV, plus films, music and games was on from the moment you sat in your seat, right up to stopping at the gate at the other end. [y][y]

Not only that, as soon as we touched down, a crew member announced that mobile phones could be used. [n]

Nick

Virgin Blue also offer live2air IFE gate to gate although they don't allow the use of mobile phones onboard at anytime.

On Qantas domestic flights, they allow you to use your mobile phone as soon as the A/C has vacated the runway on landing.

Regards

Someone has started a similar thread on anet