Mobile Phone Use Now Legal In-Flight; Kind Of

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/ADVISOR/04/14/bt.phone.in.flight.reut/' target='_blank'>http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/ADVISOR/04/14/bt.phone.in.flight.reut/</a><br /><br /></div>"the British Civil Aviation Authority has decided passengers in planes under its jurisdiction should be allowed to use these portable devices as a calendar or photo viewer because they do not interfere with the electronic circuits and radio systems used by the pilots. The CAA says airlines should let travelers write messages, read documents and perform all other non-phone functions on phones that double up as computers, just as they can now work on a laptop, play on a GameBoy or listen to music on an iPod at cruising altitudes."<br /><br />Well, you can't <i>use</i> your mobile phone to make calls, but you can at least use the device. I don't do much flying, but when I get the chance it's always nice to play with my Smartphone or Pocket PC. However it's such a pain to try and explain to the flight attendants that the phone is OFF. :roll: Hopefully we'll see changes on this side of the pond before my next flight. :wink:<br /><br />On a side note: I like how it's now "listen to music on an iPod". What happened to Walkman? Or Portable jukebox? I guess it just shows that the times are changing when it comes to portable music players and Apple is leading the way. 8O

[ShivShanks]

Actually its ******** that mobile phones on planes cause interference with on board electronics. Those things aren't that easy to disrupt. The real reason is that the cell phone networks on the ground cannot handle the cell phones zipping along at such high speeds over them. The handoff of the signals becomes very fast and can stress their netwroks. That my friends is the real reason and not the bollocks they tell you about interfering with onboard equipment. Cell phones don't really have that much of a power level. Next time ask any communications engineer about this and he'll tell you that this is true and you can use cell phones on planes without harming anything.
The spectrums are clearly demarcated and the cell phone spectrum doesn't overlap with any military, civil aviation or government spectrums. As to the radio waves themselves being harmful? ********. How come planes don't fall out of the sky due to the pilot's own communications radio waves. I mean come one folks. Put on your science caps and think about this one seriously. Cell phones do not cause problems. Have you ever noticed a cell phone cause interference anytime anywhere? There is reason the FCC gives out clearly demarcated spectrum to mobile companies.

[Kris Kumar]

OT (well not exactly) :lol:

http://www.comics.com/wash/pcnpixel/archive/pcnpixel-20040405.html

[Jerry Raia]

It is is true that cell phones dont cause any problems with airplane avionics. If they did instrument approaches whould be quite a problem. The last time i checked, we fly all the way down to the ground using radio navigation near all those Cell Towers. I havent missed the runway yet because of them interfering. Actually it is easier to ban something than to go through what would be required to actually test all these "banned" devices and see if there really was a problem.