Just wondering if the recent solar flares being yakked about in the press are expected to be disruptive to aviation? (or anything else that relies on electronics, for that matter).
I don’t know…possible exposure to more radiation than the pilots usually get?
Solar flares can cause problems with long range comm radios (mostly UHF) and can sometimes cause static to be heard on VHF comm radios. No electrical disruptions that I have ever heard of. GPS might be affected to a degree, however the GPS constellation is composed of a many many satellites which may not be affected all at the same time. I will see what happens at work this week. I haven’t ever had a problem when solar flares have been reported, so this could be the first time.
The last time the solar flares were in the news, I had no issues. As mentioned, it could and possibly did disrupt some communications. Probably more of an issue for the TransOceanic flights that rely on shortwave for position reporting, however over North America, it is doubtful it would really disrupt the VHF communication. ATC stations have several different transmitters for each frequency and even if all communications have been lost, pilots have SOPs that they will follow and ATC will be able anticipate their actions so even in the event of widespread com loss, there would probably be no real issues.
As far as increased radiation, that is why some fly with aluminum foil in their hats (true story actually).
Now don’t ask me how massive solar flares that result in EMPs will affect the FADECs in our engines… 
No issues that I know of or experienced in the past couple weeks. Now the fucking snow jacking everything up, I could do without that.
But hey, don’t worry you get paid when you de-ice. Oh, that’s right, you don’t - thanks United and ALPA :mad:
Who says I dont get paid when I de-ice? Got paid 2+ hours of overages in ORD the other day waiting on the ice man to show up(almost kicked the people off and cancelled the flight due to tarmac delay rules). Got paid 1.5 hours of overages a week ago when it took the ice man 3 tries to de-ice the plane correctly(supposedly newbies in the truck and bucket, had to get the lead’s to do it right).