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Are there any FAA regulations concerning wireless Bluetooth headsets in the cockpit of any aircraft? Moreover, I'm interested in finding out if the Bluetooth protocol (IEEE 802.15.1) will adversely affect any aircraft avionics in terms of radio interference or other Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). If anyone has any experience with this, thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.

fooot
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ridecontrol53
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  • I'm on the fence as to whether this question is too broad. – Steve V. Mar 25 '14 at 01:36
  • It probably should be two questions, though both are good ones – SSumner Mar 25 '14 at 01:44
  • I do not think the question is too broad. Both I and my friend have not been able to find an answer to the question. I have seen commercial bluetooth aviation headsets for pilots that want to stream music while also talking to ATC (although I don't know how safe that really is). But I was hoping that there were some aviation professionals that had experience in this area that they could share. – ridecontrol53 Mar 25 '14 at 02:07
  • You can also find some more info in this question: http://aviation.stackexchange.com/q/2141/69 – Lnafziger Mar 25 '14 at 12:34
  • Yeah I saw that question but I'm not really worried about not hearing auditory cues like ATC or engine noise so much as I am EMI. Thanks though. – ridecontrol53 Mar 25 '14 at 19:28
  • Related, to the EMI part of the question, at least: http://aviation.stackexchange.com/q/11555/755

    One would assume that at least a few production samples of FAA-approved headsets would have been tested for emissions, though that doesn't necessarily mean a stray (or damaged) one won't emit where it isn't supposed to. Also, I'd probably be more concerned about whatever music device it's paired to than the headset itself in regards to EMI. Also, the music feature is not for while communicating with ATC and I would assume the headsets will mute the music when the frequency is active.

     – reirab Feb 17 '15 at 03:25

1 Answers1

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There are multiple aviation headsets approved by the FAA that have built-in Bluetooth.

Based on that, I'm going to say that this has been tested and will not interfere with the aircraft avionics. Radio/EMI testing is part of the testing that any device approved by the FAA for use in an airplane must go through.

voretaq7
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Lnafziger
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