I'm not going to make any calls on whether mobiles affect instrumentation - to dumb to know anything about it. But we all know for certain that mobiles interfere with comms systems - you get that buzzing/beeping sound over the speaker as a call or txt comes through. I for one wouldn't want that to happen when I'm getting a "Go Around" instruction, or a TCAS RA, etc. A relatively small risk, but why not eliminate it?
Exactly. When you spend 10's of 1000's of dollars on TSO'd avionics, and EMI testing to give you the level of reliability you require for operations, you don't want it all to be degraded by one person's $200 mobile phone trying to find a cell....
I for one can't understand these people who can't be out of comms for more than 10 minutes or the World will fall apart. Get some perspective people. If you're that important, you should have a private jet - then you can do whatever you please.
My thoughts exactly!
In Japan the use of mobile phones is prohibited on trains, mostly because it irritates everyone else... suprisingly 99% of people are able to respect this rule, and those who don't are very discrete about it.
End rant.