Myth Busters

katiekat

New Member
I was sitting on my living room floor doing my psychology homework when my dad walked in and turned on the tv. We caught an episode of Mythbusters where they were trying to see if cellphones affected the avionics in a plane. They were doing tests with a VOR and I was getting the impression that they didn't even know how it worked.
I've found that when you watch an episode that is testing something you know about, you come to the conclusion that these guys don't really know much of anything most of the time. Granted, a lot of the stuff they do is pretty cool, but, I think about half of the time they are completely clueless.
 
agreed.

It is very disappointing that passengers still will say to me every once in a while "I saw it on mythbusters"
My phone doesn't seem to do a whole lot. Razors and crackberrys screw up my audio radios.

108.00-117.95 - nav
118.00-136.95 - comm

too close for my taste
 
I was sitting on my living room floor doing my psychology homework when my dad walked in and turned on the tv. We caught an episode of Mythbusters where they were trying to see if cellphones affected the avionics in a plane. They were doing tests with a VOR and I was getting the impression that they didn't even know how it worked.
I've found that when you watch an episode that is testing something you know about, you come to the conclusion that these guys don't really know much of anything most of the time. Granted, a lot of the stuff they do is pretty cool, but, I think about half of the time they are completely clueless.
Thats what makes them worth watching
 
The best part of the show is watching them attempt to trouble shoot and fail. I think thats part of the point of the show. I guess you havent seen the one where they tried to get an airplane airborn with out the airplane using a runway. :) Man that thread went on for pages.
 
Thats what makes them worth watching

True, sometimes it is kind of funny to watch them floundering but it's really annoying when people watch the shows and take everything they see to be the truth. I guess people don't understand that these guys are not scientists, they're just special effects experts who like to build ridiculous things and blow stuff up.
 
The best part of the show is watching them attempt to trouble shoot and fail. I think thats part of the point of the show. I guess you havent seen the one where they tried to get an airplane airborn with out the airplane using a runway. :) Man that thread went on for pages.


That "experiment" really pissed me off
 
That "experiment" really pissed me off

What? There's still people out there that still believe it won't takeoff?:banghead:

Oh and...
unscientific.png
 
...these guys don't really know much of anything most of the time. Granted, a lot of the stuff they do is pretty cool, but, I think about half of the time they are completely clueless.
This is true, they said that themselves almost word for word in a behind the scenes episode.
 
They're coming up with a hypothesis and testing it. It would need to be duplicated multiple times before you said it was real, but that's besides the point.

I'll bet you that 999 out of 1,000 times, a cell phone won't affect the avionics of an airplane. But that one time out of a thousand, which occurs due to factors that are unknown and which can't be duplicated, would cause trouble. So the ban should stay.
 
I tell my pax to turn of their phones because I can hear it getting a signal through my headset. It's just plain (yes, that's a pun) annoying.
 
It's an electronic device, but it's only a receiver, so it should be fine as far as interference, but radios (AM-FM) are not allowed to operate onboard commercial aircraft from what I remember from the seatback literature.

As far as cell phones, yeah, I've only gotten the slight audio interference.
 
What I'm confused on is if the cell phone ban is just for Part 121 carriers, or if it applies to Part 91 ops. The FARs state that during IFR under Part 91 any device that the PIC determines would cause interference must be turned off (so in my pax brief for an IFR flight I make them turn everything off, better safe than sorry)...but is there an FCC ban as well? At the altitudes and airspeeds that I cruise at, I get excellent coverage and "could" use my smartphone to download wx products.
 
What I'm confused on is if the cell phone ban is just for Part 121 carriers, or if it applies to Part 91 ops. The FARs state that during IFR under Part 91 any device that the PIC determines would cause interference must be turned off (so in my pax brief for an IFR flight I make them turn everything off, better safe than sorry)...but is there an FCC ban as well? At the altitudes and airspeeds that I cruise at, I get excellent coverage and "could" use my smartphone to download wx products.

There is an FCC rule that prohibits cell phone use on all airborne aircraft.

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cellonplanes.html
 
I tell my pax to turn of their phones because I can hear it getting a signal through my headset. It's just plain (yes, that's a pun) annoying.

:yeahthat: Sometimes that electronic pulse from the phones is darn loud too! (I think the closer to the flight deck the worse it gets.)

Not sure if it affects the NAV's or not, however if we are doing an ILS and I find out your phone is on I'm going to be one unhappy, cranky captain.
 
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