Page 1 of 2

Long-haul flights and laptops

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:36 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I've flown around within Europe umpteen times but I can't for the life of me recall if there's any way to plug in devices that require power. I'm flying from the UK to Australia Economy class and it's a VERY long time in the air for the first leg (to Singapore). I kinda wanted to take my laptop on the plane and use that for entertainment but my battery will die after a few hours. Does anyone know what the score is with pluggin in some power in flight? I'd hazard a guess that first class/business class passengers can do this but probably not in economy class.

Maybe I'll just knock myself out and be done with it :P

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:43 pm
by TheMoose
It depends on if the plane (most likely a 747 or a 777 for size and distance) is a newer build or has been retrofitted with AC power ports. A lot of flight companies offer a "premium economy" on those longer flights that usually has some form of AC power plugin for laptops.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:45 pm
by hawleyjr
Domestic (US) do not have any type of power options. (In economy but some first class flights do) Some international flights do have power throughout. If you are on a flight with power, you will need a special electrical adapter.

There are things I do to help save power. Turn all audio off, turn all wireless off, remove any cd's from the cd/dvd player, dim the screen. These all seem to help me.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:47 pm
by AKA Panama Jack
I have been on long haul flights here in the US before and never seen a way to connect a laptop to power. You might be right about 1st/Business Class but I could never afford $1000-$2000 tickets. :D

Your best bet is to take along a spare charged battery. My new laptop has a 6 cell and I am thinking about buying a 12 cell for longer life. Then use the 6 cell for a backup.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:50 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I was trying to have a look on the Singapore Airlines site but couldn't really find anything useful. Google didn't help much neither :(

It's a 747 I fly on (is that a jumbo jet or am I think of a triple 7?)

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:52 pm
by TheMoose
d11wtq wrote:I was trying to have a look on the Singapore Airlines site but couldn't really find anything useful. Google didn't help much neither :(

It's a 747 I fly on (is that a jumbo jet or am I think of a triple 7?)
It's a pretty big bird, if that's what you're asking :). The 777 is pretty gigantic, along with the new Airbus A310. 747's are the double decker planes that you see on about 90% of most international/trans-national flights.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:17 pm
by alex.barylski
d11wtq wrote:I was trying to have a look on the Singapore Airlines site but couldn't really find anything useful. Google didn't help much neither :(

It's a 747 I fly on (is that a jumbo jet or am I think of a triple 7?)
They are both considered jumbo jets.

747 is/was an amazing accomplishment in aircraft engineering. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747

With the introduction of super jumbo's such as:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A380

It's slightly less amazing now. :)

It boggles my mind how such a massive object can actually take flight and so gracefully too. Just amazing!

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:54 pm
by onion2k
Hockey wrote:It boggles my mind how such a massive object can actually take flight and so gracefully too. Just amazing!
Size is only limited by the strength of the materials used. An object weighing 10 million tonnes could fly around if you could make strong enough wings to hold all the required thrust.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:08 pm
by Chris Corbyn
Ah ha! Probably not the most reliable source of information but:

http://www.airlinequality.com/Product/Yseat-SQ.htm
The review wrote:Laptop's power-plugs for most of the Economy seats, great for long-haul trips!

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:19 pm
by alex.barylski
onion2k wrote:
Hockey wrote:It boggles my mind how such a massive object can actually take flight and so gracefully too. Just amazing!
Size is only limited by the strength of the materials used. An object weighing 10 million tonnes could fly around if you could make strong enough wings to hold all the required thrust.
Hehe...I realize that...I was in flight school as a teenager ;)

As an aviation nutt I am well aware of the relation between thrust-drag-weight-lift (and how flight actually works) but I am still equally amazed by the whole concept of flying and travel (more accurately displacement). Thats the whole motivation behind my wanting to be a pilot; A dream which I have since given up. :P

I had a flight instructor once tells us pretty much the same thing you did: "You can make a boulder fly if you put enough thrust behind it"

I quickly corrected him, saying: "Actually sir, technically the boulder is not flying as proper flight requires an object to generate lift. Lift is produced when a difference of pressure on the bottom of an airfoil is greater than that on the top. So the boulder is not flying, but simply escaping the pull of earth's gravity as a projectile."

I didn't get much of a reply from him, but I thought it was witty. Given the context of the situation (flight school) I thought it would be appropriate.

Of course, a boulder being hurdled through the air may very well generate "some" lift but certainly not enough to sustain flight - which is why I mentioned it in the first place.

Some people can't take a joke. :)

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:08 am
by JayBird
When i went to Australia last year, i flew with Emirates on a 777 but there was no power sources.

Not a problem though as there was a 500 channel TV system fitted into every seat, and a games machine, which you could play multi-player with other people on the plane!!

I did manage to sleep 14 hours of the 20 hour flight!

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:54 am
by Chris Corbyn
I'll have to sleep for a good chunk if I don't want to spend several days recovering from Jetlag :) Not sure about playing computer games, I find them boring :lol:

Where did your flight change Mark?

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 8:12 am
by JayBird
d11wtq wrote:Where did your flight change Mark?
Well, because i was going to Perth on the West coast, my route was from Manchester to Dubai, then from Dubai onto Perth.

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:53 am
by shiznatix
Having done the cross atlantic trip several times I am going to give you my advice and just knock yourself out. Don't sleep the night before and as soon as you get on the plane take some pills. Best way to deal with a long flight.

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 11:05 am
by RobertGonzalez
Sudoku, madlibs, crossword puzzles, magazines, iPods. Then, after those are exhausted, and you have read the Gang of Four's book and Martin Fowler's books, then turn your computer on if you have time.

I haven't been on flights as long as the one you are going to be one, but just trying to get through Jason Sweat's book was enough to make me forget I had a computer with me.