FAA not anal about CELLPHONES (Part II)

[Crossky]

(Continued)

Cellphones a real threat to an airplane’s avionics
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By Stephen Pope / May 2006​

It comes down to the fact that a woefully inadequate amount of information currently exists to give researchers definitive data to make intelligent decisions, Strauss said. “Let’s say two years down the road we have an accident, and then in another year we have another accident,” he said. “How are we going to attribute those accidents to cellphone use? Right now as things stand, we really have nothing to do that. If we want to prevent that one accident that might occur every five or 10 years, then we need to start concentrating some energy in this area now.”

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Aviation International News is a publication of The Convention News Co., Inc., P.O. Box 277, Midland Park, NJ, 07432. Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.​

 

[BoilerUP]

Who you gonna believe? Carnegie Mellon researchers, or Mythbusters???

 

[Stifler's Mom]

HA HA HA.

Nothing better than rolling off the first high speed and realize you left your phone on when your voice mails and text messages start announcing themselves.

WHOOPS!!!!!!!!!!

 

[atlcrashpad]

I heard it was the FCC that was anal about the cell phone thing.

 

[Groundpounder]

I've left my cell on a bunch of times, and the battery lasts maybe an hour at altitude. I guess it keeps looking for signals, and that kills it pretty quick. It also starts getting a signal around 3000 AGL in South Florida, nothing like hearing beeps and boops when getting set up to land.

 

[Stifler's Mom]

nothing like hearing beeps and boops when getting set up to land.

Ooh, I like that one. Off to the "You might be a regional F/O" thread with an idea. :cartman:

 

[FN FAL]

I'm going to have to get a cell phone one of these years. You never know when you might hit a deer on a county trunk or have to report an accident or crime in progress.

 

[ReverseSensing]

I'm going to have to get a cell phone one of these years. You never know when you might hit a deer on a county trunk or have to report an accident or crime in progress.

You, a deer, and a crime in progress. *shudders*

 

[FN FAL]

You, a deer, and a crime in progress. *shudders*

Well, you can't not be anal enough about cell phones.

 

[Stifler's Mom]

Speaking of deer. Did anybody see the ManShow episode where they straped a fake deer to the hood of a car, parked it at a 7-11 style business, and harassed people through a speaker system?

 

[Gorilla]

I had an occasion in an MD-80 that I am convinced was a cellphone. I'm not going to describe the setup beyond saying it was a false glideslope that tried to drive us into the dirt. I've never before or since seen a false glideslope; it's either flagged red, or dead-on, and the timing of the event... It was about three minutes after the FA's were completely seated for landing. My theory is some dude waited until then to make his call - "Yeah we're 5 minutes out, come pick me up", that kind of thing.

The false glidepath showed us continually high on GS. A descent rate of 1200 did not take us to the GS needle. We figured it out when we cross-checked our altitude and DME, and realized we were well below glidepath. We leveled off, and about 20 seconds later the needle snapped back to a correct position.

I can't prove it, but I strongly suspect a cell phone.

 

[FL420]

I had an occasion in an MD-80 that I am convinced was a cellphone. I'm not going to describe the setup beyond saying it was a false glideslope that tried to drive us into the dirt. I've never before or since seen a false glideslope; it's either flagged red, or dead-on, and the timing of the event... It was about three minutes after the FA's were completely seated for landing. My theory is some dude waited until then to make his call - "Yeah we're 5 minutes out, come pick me up", that kind of thing.

The false glidepath showed us continually high on GS. A descent rate of 1200 did not take us to the GS needle. We figured it out when we cross-checked our altitude and DME, and realized we were well below glidepath. We leveled off, and about 20 seconds later the needle snapped back to a correct position.

I can't prove it, but I strongly suspect a cell phone.

False glideslopes are pretty rare but not unheard of. Lots of incident reports about them are out there. That's why you must know the ILS service volume and religiously cross-check the altitude at the published G/S intercept altitude. That's not to say your experience wasn't cell phone related.

We were crossing the threshhold at KMSP in a B757 just getting ready to flare when a very loud, almost to the point of pain, burst of tones came through our headsets. It sounded like about 10 digits as if from a cellphone speed dialing. Thank God it was over almost as soon as it started.

I can't say for sure it was a conventional cellphone because we had Secret Service and media on board and they tend to have some specialized communication equipment.

 

[great cornholio]

My buddy was flying a king air and had pretty much the same false G/S thing happen to him. I think he heard one of his pax cells ringing or something at the same time it happned. So hes pretty sure that it was cell phone related. Only problems I've ever had with cell phones is sometimes we hear a noise in the headsets if one of us forgets to turn our phone off and one of us gets a call. It doesnt happend all of the time, but often enough that it didnt take long to put 2 and 2 together. So I dont think they should be allowed to be used on planes cause it seems that they do cause some problems even if its not everyday, it still happens enough that the phones should stay off. Oh I just remembered that I heard a story of a guy where he wasnt picking up the G/S and somehow realized that his phone was on so he turned it off and then the G/S started working right away (no NOTAMs and the tower said that the G/S was on and no other A/C reported the problem)

 

[metrodriver]

I had a localizer needle going hard in the corner. Could hear the moron yelling in his phone that we were 10 minutes out. Luckily high enough to avoid the granite sticking up into the cumulus