Please switch off any electronic devices and stow your tray-tables in the upright position!

This time last week we had finished our mock exams and were settling down for a week and a half of revision. Well that was the plan! Having done well in my mocks I find a week and a half a long time to sit about going through the question bank. For some people too much preparation can be a bad thing and I have found myself slotting into this category. So in my boredom (ok, a bit of an over-exaggeration) I try and keep my mind distracted now and then with aviation news and walks to the beach. Which brings me onto the point of this post. In recent months there has been a lot of talk about allowing the use of electronic devices throughout commercial flights, including take off and landing. A news article yesterday announced that US Airlines are finally going to introduce plans to allow such use of smartphones and tablets etc. You can read about it here. Fortunately the use of mobile phones remains banned, so poor cabin crew will still have to deal with that one (there's always one) passenger who hasn't switched off their phone!

Now this topic is very open to discussion and many will disagree with me, but I don't agree with this proposal for two main reasons. The first being that once everyone is sat in their seats the cabin crew give a rather important safety demonstration, as I'm sure you are all aware. Frequent fliers can probably recite this to you in their sleep, but for most, listening to it might actually save your life in the highly unlikely event of a crash. Allowing the use of electronic devices will inevitably distract many people from the safety demonstration, especially children immersed in computer games and I personally disagree with airlines and regulators even considering it.

The second reason, which will lead you to think I'm older than I actually am, is that I can't understand why people can't go without their gadgets for ten minutes during take-off and landing! For some people it might be a welcome distraction to their anxiety of flying during the most critical stages, but I hardly feel that is an acceptable reason to suddenly change the rules. I am also aware that being stuck in a metal (or composite) tube for a number of hours to most seems incredibly dull and tedious, but aircraft are designed with very modern in-flight entertainment systems with some airlines providing more films than you can watch in a lifetime. Conversely, you can always read a book.

I know that I am writing from a very biased point of view having loved air travel my entire life, and every time I'm on an aeroplane I like to enjoy the experience. I'm probably being overly cynical but I will be interested to see if this is a success.