Please turn all electronics off?

A couple weeks ago just after takeoff I heard very loud cellphone interference in my headset. I called the FA and had her get the people to turn their $&!+ off, the interference stopped shortly thereafter. Later the FA told me that people were freaked out when she made the announcement. Damn I wish I could have seen it!
 
A rather senior captain told me a story once.

He said they were flying into PIT back in the Prop Days and descending through 5000 feet on final both the captain and the FO heard a cell phone chirping in their headsets. They both ensured that their phones were off and knew the FA didn't have a cell phone (that's how long ago this was). At that point the captain disconnected the autopilot and started making VERY sharp control inputs. While he did this he made a cabin PA to the extent of "who ever has their cell phone on, turn it off quick! We can't fight it much longer!" The chirping stopped in about 10 seconds and he turned the autopilot back on.

Ah yes, the bad old days of aviation.
 
I can't really speak to the validity of this story... but I had a client tell me once that on a long cross-country flight in an autopilot equipped Cessna of some sort he was working on his laptop utilizing a wireless mouse. Well, as he moved the mouse left... the autopilot would input a subtle left turn and vice versa. Kinda creepy...

Like I say I can't say how valid this story is; kind of a friend of a friend kind of thing.

I forget to turn my phone off a lot in the air. The main reason I turn it off is because it'll run my battery down..
 
SkiHigh2002 said:
I can't really speak to the validity of this story... but I had a client tell me once that on a long cross-country flight in an autopilot equipped Cessna of some sort he was working on his laptop utilizing a wireless mouse. Well, as he moved the mouse left... the autopilot would input a subtle left turn and vice versa. Kinda creepy...
Click to expand...

Most likely BS, but that would be pretty damn cool...
 
SkiHigh2002 said:
I can't really speak to the validity of this story... but I had a client tell me once that on a long cross-country flight in an autopilot equipped Cessna of some sort he was working on his laptop utilizing a wireless mouse. Well, as he moved the mouse left... the autopilot would input a subtle left turn and vice versa.
Click to expand...

Allow me to be the first to throw the BS flag at this story.
 
SkiHigh2002 said:
I can't really speak to the validity of this story... but I had a client tell me once that on a long cross-country flight in an autopilot equipped Cessna of some sort he was working on his laptop utilizing a wireless mouse. Well, as he moved the mouse left... the autopilot would input a subtle left turn and vice versa. Kinda creepy...

Like I say I can't say how valid this story is; kind of a friend of a friend kind of thing.

I forget to turn my phone off a lot in the air. The main reason I turn it off is because it'll run my battery down..
Click to expand...


have to wonder if his feet were near the rudder pedals at the time.
 
Its VERY important to remember to turn off your cell phones. Up at altitude it hunts for signal and sucks up your battery like nobody's business. :D :sarcasm:
 
Hacker15e said:
Interestingly, I have tried to use my cell phone in flight in both the T-38 and the F-15E, and never heard that same interference.

Maybe it's a UHF vs VHF thing...I'm ignorant on what freqs cell phones work on, and too lazy to look it up for this post.
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I've only heard it once in flight (it was funny--CA making a PA announcement, and the brrrp--brrrp--brrrp went over the PA--it was the CA's phone!:)), but I used to get it all the time in the SOF truck (it's an AF thing... you civvies wouldn't understand!) in Qatar... talk about annoying!
 
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