Hi all,
Last weekend, I had another flight from JFK to Dubai. Again in the 380.
And I again I was able to use the Iphone app to listen to comms between the plane and ATC (JFK Tower). There was no problem in connectivity. It works great on the ground and up to the handoff to the departures controller after takeoff. Then the cell signal is lost. And as far as hiding it, that's pretty easy in business. You have almost like a little "cubicle" space with lots of little spots to put your device in so to not be seen by a passing by FA. Yes, the ear buds are hard to hide. But they look like Ipod ear buds, so nothing too suspicious and the FA's are all seated by the time you are taxiing towards the runway anyway.
I did have a brief panic moment this time though. As we are taxiing towards 31L, we are told to hold short. And we did for about 30 seconds. Then without any other word from ATC, we start turning onto the runway. And we don't just lineup, we turn onto the runway and as soon as the front wheel hits the centerline, we are rolling. (As an aside, for some reason, every 380 I have flown on has never lined up like most planes usually do, but instead just taxied from the hold short position onto the active runway and started the roll...strange. I read somewhere that it could be that with the plane's size and weight, starting from a complete stop uses more fuel, so they prefer to just give it a running start... I don't now).
I almost crapped my pants because I heard planes being cleared to land on 31L that night. Usually, they use 31R to land and 31L for takeoffs, unless it gets busy. And this was about 11pm, not a busy time. But for whatever reason, I heard them clear landings on 31L, I think 31R might have been closed. So I was thinking a plane may just land on top of us.
So I'm sitting there looking at the monitor's tail camera and praying. LOL Then after about 5 seconds or so, I hear "Emirates 202 Super - Cleared for take off 31L". Phew!!!
I didn't realize there is a delay in the feed. How long is it? The first time I did this, there didn't seem to be a delay. But that flight, the pilot had asked to hold wait for like 2 minutes because they were still not through their list and they needed more time. The controller had to ask if we were ready to go.