While sitting around yesterday morning sipping coffee with the Caracole
group(Cal City), the conversation came up again about the use of mobile
phones as an alternate to radio communications namely when we loose them.
Most of us that fly cross country may have experienced this phenomena and it
is a rather lonely feeling when for example we fly over the decollate Nevada
sky and our crews are trying to follow us through rugged mountains.This loss
of contact may cause us to land prematurely as this is the responsible thing
to do in respect to the crew when we lose total contact. I admit have tried
to use my mobile phone (voice) while flying in the passed but never with
much success.
But than Cindy Brickner (once again) comes up with this idea of text
messaging! As far as I understand her thoughts correctly ( I never sent a
text message in my life), if the pilot or crew sends a short text message
even if there is just a week signal the message will go through in a matter
of second. The same way as soon as there is the slightest signal on their
other end it will be received.
I am certainly not advocating this method as an everyday remedy but
certainly would be better than calling out on 121.5 for assistance and maybe
alarming a bunch of folks (as I read previously onR.A.S.) I would like your
thoughts once again. PeterK
"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
news:wCIGh.1223$mI6.1220@trndny08...
chipsoars wrote:
On Mar 4, 4:37 pm, "Peter" wrote:
What is the maximum altitude (about) when the mobile phone becomes
useless? PeterK

It varies enormously in the USA. My experience is the closer I get to a
big city, the lower I have to be to get a signal, maybe 3000' agl. In
the country, I've used it at 15,000' agl during wave flights. My
explanation is the smaller cells and lower powers used in areas with a
lot of people just don't reach upwards very high.

I've had it ring at 2500'agl at which point I told whoever (my wife and
curtly too) that I was busy flying and then shut it off (I forgot
to shut it off prior to launch). If many consider it unsafe to
drive and talk,

Driving requires constant attention because obstacles are so close to you,
like oncoming traffic and the ditch beside the road. This isn't true for
most glider flying. So, it's easier to do safely.

why do it in the air?

I usually do it because I can't reach my crew on the radio; e.g., my radio
or theirs has failed, I am too far away, or there's a mountain in the way.
Recently, our local ASOS was off the air but it still reported over it's
phone number - most pilots dialed it up when they were inbound for a
landing.

I don't suggest using it to chit-chat, or when you need to concentrate on
flying the glider, but if it will significantly improve your safety, it
seems like a good use of the phone.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org