On Wednesday, March 14, 2012 9:40:21 PM UTC-4, John Cochrane wrote:
I don't see the fuss over cell phones. So far, my iphone doesn't work
over 1,500' or so, and below that I tend to be busy with other
things.
John Cochrane

OK, OK I will lay off the hard ceiling. I agree it is limiting and might leave pilots thousands of feet below usable lift at times. I agree that I have absolutely no experience outside of the Midwest other than Uvalde last summer...but cant wait to try my hand at the wild west soon! The hard floor I like. I think that is covered at current fairly well with the current rules. The 500 ft. violations argument is one that I (will now admit) think is useless, although I felt it should be mentioned.

I have heard of someone related to the RC working on a camera system to look for IMC situations via video playback. I think this is a fantastic idea for major contests where these issues are really important. I hope it is tested. Hard to beat video evidence!

As far as the hard ceiling contest test dummy...I think Ill pass on it for this year. We are just trying to perfect contest management at this point. If your really serious about it...send me an email on how you think should could be approached.

Cell phones, I fully agree, are fairly useless above and normal altitude...and this among other reasons will hopefully soften the general concern about them, data in particular. We should allow people to use them normally and have no worries about it. But as stated above, in general, its going to far.

Best,

Sean