The biggest issue I have here is the double standard for technology.
Is there any functional difference between a cell in airplane mode and a digicam? No.
Is there any degradation of safety in cruise if someone takes a photo with a digicam vs a cell phone in airplane mode? No.
How does an EFB, which is permitted to be used with wifi on in cruise, and greatly enhances safety suddenly become a PED if a crew member snaps a photo with it? Hell, I have used a video recording on the EFB to capture engine indication abnormalities, etc during flight. This is a safety enhancement. But if I do the same thing for personal reasons when not in a critical phase of flight, it is not allowed? Ridiculous.
I don’t own a GoPro, but I assume the wifi feature can be turned off, so what is wrong with mounting one in the back of a cockpit and allowing it to passively record an approach with no intervention from the crew? Legal issues aside should it record a busted reg. I do believe this is a gateway for airlines/the FAA to mount cockpit cameras so we need to be careful about this. I would like a pilots bill of rights that, among other things, protects crewmembers from involuntary recording except perhaps under very limited, very restricted circumstances; only for training purposes, only if approved by the crew, the crew has final say before the video is viewed by others, no enforcement action based on such videos, etc.
In short, I believe the FAA should have to have a specific safety enhancing justification before it randomly regulates our activities.
