I've called people from about 6000 ft. This was back in the days of
TDMA. Now that I'm on CDMA it's harder. I did send an e-mail from
about 8000 ft. the other day.

--Dan


RK Henry wrote:
On Sat, 14 Oct 2006 12:27:04 -0400, Ron Natalie
wrote:

Mxsmanic wrote:
I know the FCC says you're not supposed to use cell phones on an
aircraft

Actually, the FCC only says that for certain wireless phone
services. Not all of them have that prohibition written in
the regs.

However, has anyone tried it on small aircraft?

The problem is that it doesn't work. Once we went to much fancier
digital systems and antenna systems designed to really pack in the
density, trying to hit them from over 1000 feet just doesn't work.

Handheld cell phones have never put out more than 850mw when
operating at high power (and they would use much less in
a plane) and the modern digital ones put out even a fraction of that.
It's unlikely that avionics would suffer much.

I once called my favorite CFII to make an appointment. When she
answered the phone, there was a lot of background noise but we could
still converse. She was talking to me on her cell phone while she was
instructing. Obviously, it can work.

Of course that was most likely at relatively low altitude in the
practice area, near civilization. Many areas where I fly there's no
cell coverage at all, on the ground or otherwise. A look at the
service provider's coverage map tells the story. Much of the area is
RF wilderness.

RK Henry