[Spridgets] Cell Phones in the air

[Mark]

The real problem using a cell phone in the air is the fact that it will 
"talk" to so many cell towers that it can confuse the system on the ground. 
Actually the FCC controls the use of a transmitter and they frown on using 
any land based system while in the air.  That being said, I used to carry a 
ham radio on planes in the 70's and would ask and receive permission to 
phone patch my wife to come pick me up at the airport.  I could call her in 
Atlanta from 30 thousand feet over Memphis and we would both get to the 
airport at the same time.  In more recent years I flew with a GPS connected 
to a laptop map and one time had a co-pilot come back to see what I had, his 
comment was that my system looked better than his.  Those days are gone for 
ever, too bad.

Scott is right that a cell phone won't effect the planes nav or com but 
maybe 200 of them would.

Mark
Nashville


" I have, however, flown 250,000 miles (at least) having forgotten my phone 
was powered up in my
backpack, and the plane has never so much as hiccuped.  I tend to be
skeptical that a $200 million flying radio is going to be equipped with
anything that has any issues with a phone's cellular radio."