Dear LPG readers,

I wonder if this has ever happened to you.

The other day I went on one of those days out that started really early in the morning with a coach trip down to the coast and then a long walk around the town, which was Hastings on that occasion.  After lunch and a long walkabout looking at the sights, we got back on the coach and prepared for the lengthy trip back to London, and it started with all the participants talking about what they had seen and what they had bought, but after half an hour or so the noise of conversation faded as people drifted off to sleep.

It had been a long day but I was not ready to nod off, and possibly end up snoring in public, so I decided to have a chat with my daughter who lives abroad while I had nothing else to do and, now that I have learned the secrets of WhatsApp, I found the app and pressed her contact button.  But nothing happened and I found that a bit disappointing because, try as I did for quite a long time, I just could not get a signal. 

I continued to press this and that before one of those warning boxes came up and told me that the phone’s ‘aeroplane mode’ was switched on.   Once I turned it off the phone was fine but I did wonder exactly what ‘airplane mode’ is.

I looked it up and though there are quite a few variations on the explanation I understand that it is a setting that disables the phone’s ability to do anything that involves the internet.  There are quite a few explanations as to why, but apparently it is in case your use of the internet conflicts with the aeroplanes instruments and ability to contact the control centres around the world, and although you can disable all the things that airplane mode switches off separately (Bluetooth, the ability to text and sometimes even make a phone call, the internet etc.) this button just does it all at once.

I am now planning a trip abroad and so I have learned a fundamental lesson which makes perfect sense really.  You only need to have your mobile phone’s ‘aeroplane mode’ facility switched on when you and the phone are on an aeroplane, and if ever the internet on your phone stops working it is worth checking the status of the ‘airplane mode’ especially if you are on the ground.

PL, Beckenham.

LPG found a little information on the subject.

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