wrote:
There are three issues with airborne cell phones:
1: interference with multiple cells.
2: interference with avionics
3: interference with (distraction of) the pilot

All are significant. #1 was much more significant with analog phones.
One day in 1995 I was giving a glider ride, had caught a good thermal,
and the analog rang. I answered, talked to the nursing-home nurse for
a bit; the thermal was strong; as I climbed through 4K agl, suddenly
ther was a loud electronic squeal and the conversation ended. More
recently I needed to make an urgent call from an airplane with a
digital phone, and got the same squeal.
#2 is randomly significant. A pilot friend told me last month, "I was
on the ramp ready for departure and placed a call on my cell phone.
When I hit 'send' all the radio displays zero'ed out. That made a
believer out of *me*!"
#3 is self evident and has been mentioned by several posters already.

I don't have an explanation for your squeals and zeros, but it's a rare
report, indeed. In fact, it's the only report of problems I've heard.

Aircraft avionics are well shielded because they have to contend with
plenty of on-board interference. This includes other avionics like
communications radios (5 to 10 watts), transponders (250 watt pulses!),
and, of course, the ignition noise of the engine. So, the paltry .5 watt
or less of the cell phone is unlikely to bother them, and that's what
most pilots experience.

Distraction is always a potential problem for a pilot, so we hope they
manage it better than many of the cell phone wielding drivers I see on
the road!


--
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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA