That's great, but you've never heard the deet-deet-deet sound through your headset? I have, on an ERJ on approach, caused by a passenger leaving his or her phone on.

Be Advised:

To those of you who chose the dumified anal retentive Nazi path of logic:


The main and only reason for the cell phone rule is to keep airborne cell phones from cellular congestion ( FIFO ). While airborne, the on cell phone displaces usage space in all line of sight cells that are within its reception range, bumping legitimate users out of all congested cells as the aircraft passes over the cellular antennae. This gets to be a great inconvenience to the service, especially when taking off, and landing near major populated areas, where it can cause disruption, or dropped calls en mass. It has been such a problem for the telecommunications industry, so that they used their political pull to enforce this rule through the FCC. I did a biennial for a Verizon telecommunications V.P those were his exact words, when I asked him the same question.

fyi, Piedmont flies -100's and -300's... No more -200's

I think captain smooth was trying to warn against cell phone use and leaving the cell phones on in flight without revealing the various problems those mini transmitter/receivers cause in flight.

Well, tell him he owes several airlines lost revenue due to:

cell phones in cargo bins that have set of the smoke detectors

startled passengers that no longer fly because the flight crew in imc appropriately responded to egpws warnings set off by a cell phone left on in the baggage

go arounds initiated due to communication interference from cell phones

(paraphrased from actual statements in incident/operational/occurrence reports)

Oops!

Sorry smooth.:(

And how did you figure out for sure that a cell phone caused these events? Not trying to be a smartass, but there is a lot of things that can cause interference or just plain equipment that is malfunctioning...

LOL ok there...a tongue in cheek question about the cell phone 'rule' warrants a threatening repsonse? Suppose sarcasm does not translate well via the internet...relax...I was not looking for an actual answer to that Q.

Take care -nerd out

If the bag was piled up next to the detector's cage, yes, it could send enough watts of power to send a signal to the warning system.

I, myself, have heard the interference on the crew headsets from cell phones thousands of times.

As far as the gpws, that phone would need to be close to the rad alt (maybe a rear cargo bin) to cause interference.

Sorry if it sounded snappy,

It is just that, I would like to see less of a paranoid America, without overbearing impositions to our proud freedom. To be overshadowed and worrisome of the Patriot Act, when we are doing very innocent and mundane things, like accidentally leaving a cell phone on and not being remorseful about it.
When I hear anything about the TSA, Homeland security, or the Patriot act, when Osama is still barefoot in the cave with his laptop, running the terrorist show, I do not think anyone should fear speaking blatantly about knowingly leaving a cellphone on!!


Not meant to be threatening, just expressing my opinion in a open forum.

So what you're saying is we need a forum for pilots that is meant to only be accessed by pilots. Possibly even taking it a step further such as dividing groups up to categories like Regional or Mainline so those respective pilots could speak freely in those areas.... Brilliant!!!!

Seriously unless we want to start making your license number a requirement to join where can we go that's "safe" from the public?

So we can't talk about the UFOs and the secret reason why airlines are actually delayed now?

I am only here because I had an interest in learning more about what unfortunately happened to Colgan 3407. I have working in the past at a tv station but in the production and promotions department. I had to fill in one day for a new photog and then saw the story air later. The news director and I went head to head over how the story was twisted. It got heated and the station manager walked in so I informed him that I would never do his dirty work again. I did continue to shoot sports stories on occasion since I just wanted to go the the game and have the view from the sideline. I have no respect nor interest to listen to or work for the media. My wife works for Colgan so I have some interest in what has happened. Our phone started ringing at 3:30am on the 13th to let her know of her schedule change. At one point I had looked at flight school but never persued it. I enjoy flying and wish I did more of it, still trying to figure out why I haven't gotten any free passes. :( I do need to read back through this thread though and see who said they were responsible for the delays at LGA. That would explain why my wife is late getting home sometimes or ends up there overnight. :D

As far as cell phones go, I can tell you that when we are videotaping something and using mics, I have told the person before their phone rang that it was going to since I could here it in the headphones. I was also getting the same interference when their phone was searching for service. Not a big deal since we were firmly on the ground.

No offense but I don't think anyone here wants the liability of being your information source, or that of anyone else for that matter. This is "Airline Pilot Central". These are the "Airline Pilot Forums". We come here to speak with one another about issues we find pressing amongst our profession. I don't think anyone wants to have to deliberate 4 times before saying anything due to fear of how someone in civil land will interpret what we say. Something that's a well understood joke between us might come off is callous, dangerous, etc to the unknowing and undeserving eyes of the public. If you want news then turn on CNN of Fox. Our companies have HR spokesmen for a reason and that's because of how wrong the public can twist everything.

Duck, you're right and that's is a good comment.

I was recluctant to respond to this thread, but it touched a nerve with me. Reason being... I used to be an F/O on the Q400 at Colgan, for about a year. It was a great experience and I would not trade it for anything.

I thought about maybe it should have been me in that right seat instead of Rebecca Shaw. I needed to call a counselor yesterday because it bothered the heck out of me.

Understood. But for the final time, I haven’t asked any questions nor solicited anyone here, in any form, for information regarding this incident (or any other for that matter).

Again, my only point was to say that not all of the lurkers have intentions other than to further their personal understanding of what could have possibly transpired that night. Mainly, again, because there is very little mentioned about this incident from media sources, just like the ones you mentioned, CNN/Fox/etc...

If my saying that the ongoing respectful discussion of this incident among those that can truly relate (i.e. pilots/you, not journalists), provides useful information for the average person like me, and this is offensive to you/anyone else, I sincerely apologize (holy run-on sentence :eek:, but I think you get my point).

This is my final post, I will delete my account; I don't have anything useful to add to your forum. I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone or ruffle any feathers…if I did, again, my apologies.

Take care all.

Nerd: No need to go away. Guys are upset and edgy right now. Your point is well taken. I think you should be free to peruse the site and gather info on what pilots are thinking and saying. Its still a free country. Don't take this stuff personally.

Thanks.

Perhaps there are no new reports because there is no new information.

Or maybe it just isn't as interesting as a pet chimp that rips a woman's face off, JonBenet Ramsey, or Lorena Bobbit.

Once the NTSB report comes out, it will tell you the facts of what happened.

It is clear the media can not responsibly report on aviation accidents after the Colgan accident. I have heard more unrealistic garbage on the news than facts. One CNN meteorologist was even saying carb. icing could have caused the plane to crash. News used to be news, but now it has put entertainment before facts. If you want the facts, wait for the NTSB to come out.

"This is my final post, I will delete my account; I don't have anything useful to add to your forum. I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone or ruffle any feathers…if I did, again, my apologies."

It should be obvious to anyone paying attention that we don't restrict the site to just pilots. Anyone with an interest in aviation is welcome to post. Especially if a ones spouse is a Colgan pilot, for pete's sake...

We have many non-pilot users here that contribute in a positive manner, even a mod who is an attorney. Besides, nerd, there is no provision in the software for you to delete your account...hehe....

Yeah so your stuck with us think of us as one big disfunctional family....:D

LOL yup, fig'd that out after my last post :o. Ah well...one more member in the pile can only help ad revenue.

Thanks again guys.

Oh, and if non-pilots are welcome here, if anyone ever has any automotive related issues/questions/concerns, feel free to ask away...I'm an automotive engineer when I'm not on here pestering you folks :)

Actually there are forums that do just that. *************.com

You must sign up with your real name and pilot license number. Yes, they check. You must also have an account to lurk. It eliminates 99% of the B.S. you see in places like this and like FI.

True John, but it also eliminates about 99% of the information from being posted in the first place. I was on there for a year and there was very little posted, particularly compared to this site.

Maybe it was like that in its first year, but it's certainly not like that anymore. I gathered more information over there for both the US Air and Colgan accidents than I did anywhere else, by a long shot.

There's probably a lot more members now who have left "other" message boards than when you were there. You'd probably recognize a lot of the names. It seems to have reached critical mass now and is pretty good. You don't see the flaming you see here. Even PuffDriver and myself are civil.

Yes, the boards were civil, there just wasn't much going on in the cargo and FedEx boards. I keep getting invitations to rejoin but for now I think I will continue to "slug it out" over here.