Use of cellular comms in flight

[Andy_RR]

In the US, the FCC bans the use of mobile communications equipment in flight.

(see 47 CFR 22.925)

Does anyone know if such a regulation is in effect here in Australia?

[Fondair]

My iPad disagrees.

[MakeItHappenCaptain]

"I'm very sorry, but I'm not allowed to use my phone to call ATC after a complete electrical failure.":}

[jas24zzk]

hmm interesting.

We were just discussing friday night over a few jars, how the latest headsets with bluetooth handle the calls. I.e what gets heard by others on board, and how they prioritise radio/intercomm Tx's whilst you are on a call.

Legal stuff aside, I don't permit mobiles to be turned on in any aircraft I fly. It may have changed with the newer generation phones, but the beep beep of a phone searching for a station used to drive me crazy, hence my personal rule.
That aside, if it does turn turtle, and you need to make use of the phone, when you turn it back on, you know it won't have gone flat from expending its energy on trying to find a tower. Not saying you'll still be able to contact a tower, but you certainly have more hope if the battery still has some life.

I find them an annoyance in normal day to day, and even worse in flight. why would you want it on! :eek: So much of an annoyance, i;ve lost mine yet again....if you could.........

0055 CALL ME NOW :E

[Ixixly]

I use the Lightspeed Zulu2s and find that they deal very well with prioritising what calls, basically anything that comes through the Aux input (Aka, your normal 3.5" input) or through the Bluetooth is automatically reduced to 20% of its current set volume and is done so quickly that i've personally never missed the start of any call!!

Jas24zzk, personally when i'm fly VFR (Which is mostly for scenics) I don't get the punters to turn them off, as its never caused me any problems, not even when searching for signal or anything like that coming through the headset. IFR is a different story, I like to play that one safe and require all mobiles to be turned off completely.

What a lot of people don't realise though about their Headsets is that when your comms go dead the Mobile Bluetooth connection no longer works, in some, in the Lightspeed Zulu2 you actually have to change one of the setting pins inside the battery compartment for them to work whilst "Unplugged".