Airplane Mode

[Capt T]

Last I knew there were no cellphone towers in the oceans.... Next time you are on a trans oceanic flight, take your phone off airplane mode and see if you get a signal...

I don't disagree that having a plane full of people on the phone would be annoying, but if you are going to ban a technology because it's annoying, don't hide behind safety.

Tell the truth. We are adults. We can handle the truth.

True, but there are satalite phones that do work. And enough people who would get them if it they thought they could use them and traveled enough.

My point is more to the who cares why they say we can't use them, I am all for not having people use their phones while on the plane.

 

[FiremanMike]

Airplanes are delicate enough as it is, and air travel is incredibly complicated. If the FAA says that not being on my cell phone might increase the chances of successfully flying from a to b without a catastrophic failure, the that's good enough for me.

 

[thewitt]

Airplanes are delicate enough as it is, and air travel is incredibly complicated. If the FAA says that not being on my cell phone might increase the chances of successfully flying from a to b without a catastrophic failure, the that's good enough for me.

Doing most of my flying outside the US, I'm getting jaded against the ridiculous TSA policies that make you take your shoes off and other BS, as well as any other arbitrary policy in the name of safety and security. Having gone thru security in dozens of different airports in the last two years, the US is the only place I have to take off my shoes, and the only place I feel insecure...

Did you know that the TSA has proposed banning all carry on luggage? In the name of added safety and to address the complaints over taking so much time to get thru security.

Are you for that too? TSA says it will make flying safer and more secure. Cheaper screening too.

 

[FloatingBones]

Well crap - you need to get in touch with the FAA immediately. They'd love to hear what you have to say with regard to this matter - it'd be fantastic to rid ourselves of these pesky regulations!

You do not understand. There are good reasons to require people turn off their phones during taxi and takeoff. At the same time, it would be hopelessly naive to presume all passengers are turning off their phone. Every day, thousands of passengers either ignore the instructions or forget to turn off their phone radios.

Leaving a cell phone on creates no problem for commercial aircraft.

 

[FiremanMike]

Anyone ever place an old Nextel phone next to a speaker and listen the constant interference it creates with the speaker? Phones can and do create some interference with some electronics. I can live for a few hours without communications with the outside world, and I follow the rules.

Thewitt, the more you rant on, the more you just sound like you're "anti". I'm not going to get drug into arguing all the finer points of US air travel.

 

[miamialley]

Think of it this way...do you really want to sit on a plane cross country, let alone crossing an ocean, and listen to over 200 people talking on their cell phones?

This. The day people can make voice calls on their cell phones during flight is the day air travel goes from bad to worse. That would be brutal.

 

[thewitt]

If the airlines don't want us to talk on the phone during the flight, then say that. Don't tell the flying public that turning on a cell phone is going to crash the plane.

I've seen people who literally scream at other passengers in raw fear when they turn on their phone mid flight. Fear of flying aggravated by lies about cell phones able to bring down a plane makes for stupid policy.

You want to ban phone calls because they are annoying or distracting then say so.

I had the pleasure of flying from Singapore to San Francisco recently with on board wifi. It was a very productive flight, rather than 11 wasted hours in the air.

I have no problem with people using the text features of their phones in flight, but that too is banned by the FCC and FAA for no real reason - only because there may be untested or unproven negative consequences to either ground or onboard systems....

I've said more than I should about this topic, and clearly no one else here cares, so I'll leave this thread by simply saying that I have written letters to all the airlines I use, the FAA and the FCC, because I do believe that the only way to see things change is to contact the people who have the power to change them.

 

[Nothlit]

Aside from the "interference with aircraft systems" issue, there are a couple of other issues that no one has mentioned here.

At high cruising altitudes, your phone isn't going to be able to get a signal from the ground anyway, and it will simply waste tons of battery power searching for a signal throughout the flight. Turning on airplane mode will conserve your battery.

At lower altitudes where it's still possible to get a signal from towers on the ground, your phone could be in range of several dozen towers at once. The cellular network was not designed to have hundreds of phones in range of dozens of towers simultaneously, switching between them at speeds of 300+ miles per hour.

 

[Pharmscott]

Aside from the "interference with aircraft systems" issue, there are a couple of other issues that no one has mentioned here.

At high cruising altitudes, your phone isn't going to be able to get a signal from the ground anyway, and it will simply waste tons of battery power searching for a signal throughout the flight. Turning on airplane mode will conserve your battery.

At lower altitudes where it's still possible to get a signal from towers on the ground, your phone could be in range of several dozen towers at once. The cellular network was not designed to have hundreds of phones in range of dozens of towers simultaneously, switching between them at speeds of 300+ miles per hour.

Yes! You'd get no reception while cruising. Also, Mythbusters did an episode on this and proved that there is no interference unless you scale up the power to a ridiculous, non-real-world amount.