Cell phones on planes

Okay, being someone who uses the phone for more then talking to my girl telling her endlessly I love you more, no I love you more, I think so…at least for data transmission. Too many times I was in the air and missed a sales op in my last job cuz I couldn’t have my blackberry turned on. But yeah I would hate to hear me yapping away about getting you a hot deal on a OC-3 with a 3640 Cisco for dirt cheap…:D

There’s no way that cell phones, or blackberries, or pagers are going to interfere with the plane. In fact, some planes offer phones in the seats of the plane, so we know that it wont have any effect on it’s mechanics at all.

Given that, I see no real reason to ban them.

However, some have worried that the phone could be used to trigger a detonation device and that would be a reason to have them off. (I don’t agree, but I see their point.)

On the way home from Vegas recently, after leaving for the airport straight from The Crazyhorse Too, this old couple behind me kept complaining about me smelling like “a drunk whore”…I laughed to myself, but Stuka your comments ring true…flying is bad enough without us jib jabbing on the phone…but I would still like to be able to at least use the data features of my phone, you must be able to see that is okay…and if you have never been to that “bar”, I suggest you go now, don’t pass go, don’t collect 200 dollars, you will need it there.

I would like to be able to use a phone on a plane. If it is safe, I have no Idea if it is or why it wouldn’t be, but I would like to be able to call ahead and say “I’m 30 minutes out, head for the airport”.

As for being bothered by other peoples conversations, I have a cure for that too, get married. I can tune anyone out after 9 years of practice. :)

I really don’t feel like sitting next to a guy yapping for 8 hours personally.

Cell phones have been used by the terrorists in iraq as trigger devices for road side bombs.

I know they already scan for bombs at the airports, but the extra measure of safety could prevent another terrorist disaster.

OK, finally a discussion on something I’m actually a paid expert on.

Stuka: Shielding RF is actually quite simple. There are varying degrees of shielding from aluminum braid to reverse RF signals to even more advanced (and probably over everyone’s head here) methods.

As part of my job I have to shield ATMs and Vaults from RF signals but allow for just one signal to come and go as necessary. It’s quite a challenge and a bit of fun.

And no, it would have absolutely no effect on the electronic signals that control the mechanics of the aircraft. Many of the systems on an aircraft that are necessary for it to continue flight are simple electrical circuits - it either has current or not. The on-board computers, on the other hand, are running at 1MBs (average speed) which can more then readily allow the computing devices to remove all - if any - electrical interferance.

Nae, more dangerous then a mere cell phone would be lightening or bad gas. (the last is a joke, considering you’re on canned air up there.)

Also, I see no reason to ban smoking on planes. It is quite possible to seal off a section of the plane and put them on their own canned air.

Also, it is quite nice to be able to inform your party that you will be arriving late or early without having to land first and then wait, or make them wait because your plane was delayed 14 hours in Frankfurt, Germany and no one bothered to tell O’Hare International Airport so your family could check up on your arrival time.

Also,if you want to ban cell use, may I recommend banning it in the car when you SHOULD be concentrating on not hitting ME!?!? In a plane you are nothing but a passenger, your use of a cell isn’t going to determine the life or death of other innocents on the road. (Personally, I pull over and call a person back if I need to talk on the cell in the car, out of respect for hte other drivers and so that my pretty new truck doesn’t get scratched!)

I talk on my phone while I’m driving regularly, I’ve never been in an accident while using my phone. I also regularly drive with my knee while I eat a cheese burger. :P

I was drinking a beer on teh way to work this morning…JUST JOKES.

I wear a handsfree earpiece if I have to make a call while driving, nothing worse then flying down 495 in the morning and get cut off by some moron from Maryland doing 40 yapping on their cell phone with one hand, applying makeup/shaving with the other. And I believe that ultimately whey will left teh cell phone ban for this simple reason:

If they allow broadband internet access, then I hookup my mic/headset to my iBook, launch Skype and I am dialing away…might as well just make the cell usuable with some restictions, maybe a cellphone section not unlike a smoking section. Business travelers that would be using them wouldn’t mind as for the most part the tickets are being paid for by their company, so create a cell phone section on teh plane so that the use is centralized…just my thought, but what do I know…

In the next 50 years, the auto companies, urged on by the insurance companies, should be able to put a Knight Industries 2000 computer system for automatic accident-proof driving into all of our cars.

Knight Rider w/ David Hasselhoff was on about 20 years ago. The technology for cars has only taken baby steps since.

My god it has been 20 years give or take since KITT was first introduced huh? I’m still waiting for Buck Rodgers to find his way back home :D

No!!
Can you imagine the impossibility to sleep on plane WITH cell phones going off etc.!

That’s what the vibrate setting is for…amoungst other things.

Also, I see no reason to ban smoking on planes. It is quite possible to seal off a section of the plane and put them on their own canned air.

well thats why it is banned. because no companies want to pay to do this to their planes. i dont know about the feasability anyway, but i do know that the companies dont want to do that. and when smoking was allowed, they didnt do that, they just seperated it by rows, which is stupid.

Also, it is quite nice to be able to inform your party that you will be arriving late or early without having to land first and then wait, or make them wait because your plane was delayed 14 hours in Frankfurt, Germany and no one bothered to tell O’Hare International Airport so your family could check up on your arrival time.

you can find this out without talking to the person on board. u can call before the plane takes off, you can use the onboard phones, etc. ive never heard of a problem from ANYONE that i know or otherwise about this.

Also,if you want to ban cell use, may I recommend banning it in the car when you SHOULD be concentrating on not hitting ME!?!? In a plane you are nothing but a passenger, your use of a cell isn’t going to determine the life or death of other innocents on the road. (Personally, I pull over and call a person back if I need to talk on the cell in the car, out of respect for hte other drivers and so that my pretty new truck doesn’t get scratched!)

no argument here, ban it in cars too

the point is, no one wants to deal with asshole passengers on cell phones. its like the loews commercial b4 a movie “its inconsiderate cellphone man”
why should we let them come into the last bastion of freedom we have?

The first time you travel outside the US, esp. to any of the Asian coutries or the UK, you will really hate cellphones then if the thought of someone talking on one during a flight upsets you. Anywhere you go in Ireland, be it train, bus or sitting at a cafe, someone is on their cell, with a two way in their hand texting to someone else. Coming from DC where it seems we all have a celly strapped to our face, this was overwhelming to me. Sitting on a bus for 15 minutes and every single person just talking away…at the coffee house…at the pub that night…at teh pub that morning…

My point is you just need to accept the fact that as technology grows it becomes more used, and the more it is used the more it becomes part of everyday life…when that happens you have to adjust. Sure it is the last thing you want to have happen on a 4 hour flight - Salesguy McGee wearing too much Polo whipping out his cell and talking way too loud about doing lunch, moving 400 units at a hot price and telling his buddy about his neighbors wife, but it is coming. I think if they allowed cell phones to be on but only for text and data messages, alot could be gained for the cell user that needed it, while saving teh sanity for those that didn’t want the conversations.