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Tony R

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This is a Can not a Should question: Assuming I have reception or a Sat phone, can I talk on my cell phone while PIC?

A non-pilot asked me this and I had no idea. If you have the specific FAR/AIM section that would be great. Thank you in advanced.
 
I'm not sure FAA prohibits it, but I think that FCC discourages cell phone use.
 
A lot of ANR headsets nowadays have Bluetooth connectivity. It’s pretty easy to make a phone call while flying, bearing you have cell service at altitude. It’s not really a big deal as far as I’m concerned because your call will automatically silence if ATC chimes in so it won’t become a distraction. Obviously if you’re in a critical phase of flight or immersed in IMC it’s probably not a smart idea <common sense>.
 
Ryanb said:
A lot of ANR headsets nowadays have Bluetooth connectivity. It’s pretty easy to make a phone call while flying, bearing you have cell service at altitude. It’s not really a big deal as far as I’m concerned because your call will automatically silence if ATC chimes in so it won’t become a distraction. Obviously if you’re in a critical phase of flight or immersed in IMC it’s probably not a smart idea <common sense>.
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I've called the FBO before when I was too far for their unicom to work but was able to get through via cell phone

Also, good practice to have your tower's phone number.. if you lose radio/comms you might be able to just call them on the cell. Sounds ridiculous, but in my opinion it sure beats flying in busy airspace with ATC having an anxiety attack and trying to figure out light gun signals
 
Tantalum said:
I've called the FBO before when I was too far for their unicom to work but was able to get through via cell phone

Also, good practice to have your tower's phone number.. if you lose radio/comms you might be able to just call them on the cell. Sounds ridiculous, but in my opinion it sure beats flying in busy airspace with ATC having an anxiety attack and trying to figure out light gun signals
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Rules notwithstanding, this is a good idea. Had a student call a Class D tower for landing clearance when the radio quit working while he was in the practice area.
 
Tantalum said:
This is likely an ancient rule to prevent your phone from pinging too many towers and causing issues with that. As far as I'm aware this FCC rule, while still in effect, its reasoning is basically moot
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Depends on your definition of "ancient". It was put into place in 1991. ;)

It is, however, still effective and can be enforced.
 
smv said:
It was put into place in 1991
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I could be totally off base here, but this is around when the first cell phones really started appearing.. my understanding was that since radio is line of site there was a concern that a cellular phone at 35K could potentially ping dozens of towers at once (hundreds?) and cause some issues as a result of that

I think that's been solved by angling the beams more effectively. Full disclosure, outside of some examples, I would say 75% of the time I'm over 4K my phone has zero signal

On a side note.. on more than one occasion I've heard Mexican radio while airborne on the lower 118.XX frequencies in the San Diego area. At first I thought it was a stuck mic on some dude's plane, but learned that it was Mexico just blasting messy radio signals at super high power with abandon into oblivion. A little Googling revealed that this is an issue for Verizon and other customers living along the border
 
BTW... It should also be pointed out that Cell Phone ≠ Sat Phone. Since the OP mentioned both, the FCC reg posted above only mentions the "...operation of cellular telephones"...
 
Tantalum said:
Also, good practice to have your tower's phone number.. if you lose radio/comms you might be able to just call them on the cell. Sounds ridiculous, but in my opinion it sure beats flying in busy airspace with ATC having an anxiety attack and trying to figure out light gun signals
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That’s actually a great idea... I never thought of that.
 
Tantalum said:
I think that's been solved by angling the beams more effectively. Full disclosure, outside of some examples, I would say 75% of the time I'm over 4K my phone has zero signal
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A friend of mine who uses his Samsung tablet as a hotspot to provide an internet connection to his EFB has the same experience. Get much above 4k AGL and the signal goes away. Years gone by, that same friend was able to make calls and send texts well up into the 15k range.
 
smv said:
Get much above 4k AGL and the signal goes away. Years gone by, that same friend was able to make calls and send texts well up into the 15k range.
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If only cellular service wasn’t ground based...;)
 
If it's a strictly regulatory question, and we can get some backup from @Brad Z, you can allow anything you want when you're PIC of your aircraft.
 
Tony R said:
Assuming I have reception or a Sat phone, can I talk on my cell phone while PIC?
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Did you intend to conflate satelitte phones and cell phones? If you have reception on your sat phone, it is not necessarily assured that you have reception on your cell phone.

if you have reception on your sat phone, have at it. If you can get reception on your cell phone, have at it. As noted, you're breaking a FCC rule and you are solely responsible for the results of that, if any.

One additional benefit of having your cell phone on that hasn't been mentioned: If your cell phone is on and you crash, your cell phone signal can be used to triangulate your position very precisely by the CAP forensics team.
 
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I would guess 99% of people flying on any commercial flight are in violation of this rule
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Does the device in your pocket at this moment actually fall under the FCC definition of a "cellular" phone?
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Mine does. It operates in the Channel Block B frquency range. If it isn't a radio telephone meeting the FCC definition, then it should not be broadcasting in that range.
 
A SAT phone is not a part 22 cellphone. Channel Block B was half of the original AMPS channels. AMPS doesn't exist anymore as a technology, but the regs have never really been updated and frankly the FCC doesn't give a hoot (and in practice NEVER did). There's lots of mobile stuff (all Sprint stuff, most of your higher speed stuff on the other carriers, etc...), that is not (and never was) covered by Part 22. Sprint was under the PCS and NeXTel was under land mobline. Frankly, the FCC really largely got "deregulated" so barring a complaint from a legitimate user of the band, or doing something real stupid (like faking distress calls or the line), enforcement of the regs there is non-existent.
 
Thank you all for your collective wisdom. This explains why I can't find any Regs on it and John and Martha didn't say anything about it in their Videos.
 
smv said:
Depends on your definition of "ancient". It was put into place in 1991. ;)

It is, however, still effective and can be enforced.
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I probably have a chance of winning mega millions before I would see this enforced in general aviation.
 
Tantalum said:
I could be totally off base here, but this is around when the first cell phones really started appearing.. my understanding was that since radio is line of site there was a concern that a cellular phone at 35K could potentially ping dozens of towers at once (hundreds?) and cause some issues as a result of that

I think that's been solved by angling the beams more effectively. Full disclosure, outside of some examples, I would say 75% of the time I'm over 4K my phone has zero signal

On a side note.. on more than one occasion I've heard Mexican radio while airborne on the lower 118.XX frequencies in the San Diego area. At first I thought it was a stuck mic on some dude's plane, but learned that it was Mexico just blasting messy radio signals at super high power with abandon into oblivion. A little Googling revealed that this is an issue for Verizon and other customers living along the border
Click to expand...
 
I used to fly planes that had sat phones in them. Really handy for calling dispatch when in the middle of No Where without cell service....

Also the medics could use the sat phone when they needed to talk to a doctor.
 
depends on who is on the other side... girlfriend .. sure. wife ... meh, take a break and enjoy the peace and tranquility
 
Lots of stuff you should be doing versus yakking on the phone, just saying.
 
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