Cell phone as flight recorder

In article ,
Bob Greenblatt wrote:

On 2/8/06 11:08 AM, in article
, "Wallace
Berry" wrote:

Maybe this is old news, but it's new to me. Take a look at:

http://bonesinmotion.com/corp/

This is a service for cell phones that tracks movement and allows the
track log to be downloaded to a website for later viewing. It records
pretty much everything that our gps flight recorders do. Of course, it
is dependent on service coverage. This is targeted at personal fitness
and training markets, but might be useful for soaring. Even if it's not,
something like this might be the future of flight recording.

Well, maybe it will work, but you are in violation of Title 47:
Telecommunication
PART 22‹PUBLIC MOBILE SERVICES
Subpart H‹Cellular Radiotelephone Service

which states:
"§ 22.925 Prohibition on airborne operation of cellular telephones.

Cellular telephones installed in or carried aboard airplanes, balloons or
any other type of aircraft must not be operated while such aircraft are
airborne (not touching the ground). When any aircraft leaves the ground, all
cellular telephones on board that aircraft must be turned off. "


Well, I'd hazard a guess that there are hundreds, if not thousands of
active cell phones aloft as I write this, so I suspect that this law is
essentially of academic interest only. One of my thoroughly rotten
friends has a habit of calling me at work from his glider as he happily
thermals overhead. Law or not, as a general rule, I do turn my phone off
when I fly. Having it on in flight tends to drain the battery and I'd
rather save the battery so I can call my crew when I land out.

The tracking service does not require that a call be placed from the
phone being tracked, not that it makes a difference with regards to the
quoted law. Also, I have read that the prohibition against operating a
cell phone in flight will eventually be lifted as analog service is
supplanted by digital.

I just remembered that most cell phones can already use gps based
services for ground navigation. I wonder if anyone (rogue scofflaw that
they are) has already tried this in flight?

In the future (and assuming no gaps in service), we may not need
on-board GPS at all. With appropriate software, a cell phone enabled PDA
could function as a flight computer with no other equipment needed (just
as a PDA with a GPS card can do now). I'm sure this has already been
thought of and I missed the discussion.