Radio Broadcast link from a/c
 

Help!!

I'm hoping someone in here may be of invaluable assistance. In just over a week we're taking a bunch of people into the skies for a special event. The entire 1 hour flight will involve circling a city and during the flight I really need to be able to get a radio station on the ground below to be able to speak to (and relay the conversation live to air) a DJ in the plane.

Naturally a standard mobile phone is out of the question - so any chance anyone in here would have an alternate suggestion. How do the 'eye in the sky' guys do it? Does a satellite-phone pose the same problems?

All help REALLY appreciated!

I'm am no expert here, but define "bunch" of people and aircraft type. If you are going to be at lower altitudes a mobile will probably work fine, check with crew though, if you are in a large plane does it have seat back phones? If so use those. If it is a typical light plane use your mobile it'll work fine, but I suggest your best course of action is to speak to the flight operater/airline and ask their advice.

Right then - here we go....

aircraft is either an ATR 42 or 72 with 60+ seats but we're only going to half-fill the plane. Passengers comprise family groups of four (2 adults and 2 kids) who have won a public competition to view a fireworks display from the air. Expected altitude is c.1500 feet amsl. The company I've chartered the plane from are extremely helpful, but it would appear that a standard mobile phone would be a no-no (doesn't it play havoc anyway by locking in on multiple ground cells?)

I believe that the mobile phone system has progressed beyond that now - at-least in the UK, although I'm less sure of Eire.

I'm not an expert on the height of fireworks, but that sounds a little low to me - has somebody done a formal safety assessment on this?

Flight test departments use a telemetry system for such things; you could try speaking to somebody like BAE to see if they have an off-the-shelf system that they can make available. For that matter, what about the BBC?

I do know of a small company called "Airborne Engineering" who do such things (they were closely involved with the edge of space balloon project). No idea of specific capability or availability, but you could do worse than contact a chap called James Macfarlane, Email james (at) airborne-engineering (dot) com (do the usual reconstruction; he won't thank me for putting his Email address where a web-bot will use it to bombard him with spam).

G

The flight sounds a lot like the Eye in the sky type, suggest you give Capital Radio in London a call (that is the only operator I know of in the UK) and ask who operates their flights and what they use for communication. The advantage with using a mobile is that a hands free kit with two earpieces will allow a two way with one of the punters on board (one earpiece for you and one for the punter, both of you using the hands free mic) If you go down the mobile route bring a selection of phones with you so that you have at least one on each network that is available in Ireland. At 1500 feet you are well within the the limits for using a mobile, how about a quick "jolly" to check how things work out, I'd guess you are using Aer Arran, so why not buy a ticket to the UK so you can see what works? (Making very sure the airline and crew are OK with this)

Thanks for the help so far guys - I'll work on the contacts given ... and keep 'em coming.

Is there not an issue regarding mobile phones and avionics?

As for the safety issues, max height of f/works is 700 feet. On explosion they can climb an additional 200 feet, which gives a maximum height of 900 feet. We'll be 600 feet above that plus we'll be flying in circles outside of them rather than directly o/head.

That seems reasonable Aidanf, but if it were I, I'd be getting some kind of probability assessment out of the firework manufacturer and proving to myself that I was looking at a 1 in 10^5 or lower probability of a firework/aircraft impact. Don't trust the first figures you get in such a case.

(I have a professional background in such things.)

G

Hi Genghis - to be honest the safety of the flight I'm leaving with the operator. These guys are a very well respected scheduled carrier in their 'day job'. I have no doubt that they'll ensure we're well clear of the firing site - possibly a mile or more. However following your comments I will check with them fully after the weekend.

Any thoughts on the matter of mobile phone usage and compromising the avionics?

hi aid,ring 96fm cork and ask them how the broadcast their traffic from the aircraft,its defo a mobile.

Mick - had thought of that, only problem is that 96 are the competition to the radio station we're using so they may be 'reluctant' to assist. From what little info I could garner about their set-up they use some kind of transceiver which feeds back to the studio, via and aerial on the roof (of the radio station). Someone also thought that something was suction-attached to the window of the a/c for transmissions

This is a fairly simple thing to arrange,ask Your pilot to call Stockholm radio(or any other HF provider)and ask for a phone patch to Your required number you will require a credit card to pay for it though,alternatively You could ask Your radio station to call a provider and patch to the aircraft this is all routine and have done it several times Myself.

Any chance you'd have a list of the HF providers? All of the flight will be in the south of Ireland, if that's any help. Excuse the ignorance ... but.. would that suggestion not tie up the radios?

Is it normal for an ATR to be fitted with HF ?
The costs of a patch via Stockholm are quite high unless you have a contract.

No idea if ATRs are fitted with HF this was not the original question.Using this system would tie up only 1 HF and don"t think that would be an issue if circling a city.On the cost issue I assume the radio station would pay.See link below for Stockholm radio.
http://www.stockholmradio.com/aero/

Re: Radio Broadcast link from a/c
 

If an ordinary mobile phone won't work (or can't be used legally), I'd suggest using an Iridium phone - very nearly SOP on the majority of biz jets in the US at least. Even without the external antenna my guess is that it should give you clear transmissions through the cabin windows. I'd be much more worried about the ambient noise, turboprops are not known for quiet cabins so you may not get exactly broadcast quality sound.

Re: Radio Broadcast link from a/c
 

Thanks for all your help, but in the end it wasn't an issue!!!

One of the worse storms to hit the area in months rolled in on Saturday afternoon and with x-winds being marginal, at best, we could have taken off .... but we would have had a VERY uncomfortable flight and would have been forced to divert our landing to Dublin resulting in a four hour coach ride home!!

We took the sensible option and got our guests pi!!ed in the airport instead - food, some drinks and some entertainment - pretty much all of them were fine with it and respected the decision not to fly!

So what lesson have I learned .... not to get involved in anything flight-related that's dependant on having reasonable weather? Clearly not, my next big gig is a large festival having aviation as its anchor during the Summer .... in one of the regions of Ireland where weather is pretty much awful all of the time confused: