Originally Posted by freshairborne

Fair 'nuff. But if you say you don't know if it's a whopper or not, that implies that you don't necessarily believe them. Fishy stories, or trust? I doubt I'd try to second-guess you in your job. As far as flying at 18,000', it's rare, but it's been done. I've done it a few times. I might not even mention it. When I have done it, I've had good reasons, none of which are likely to be fully understood by my passengers.

I haven't tried the "cell phone detector" announcement. I prefer to use the "amnesty" announcement. When I'm about to conduct a Category II or III approach in low visibility, which is followed by an autoland, I want all electronic devices off. OFF. OFF! There are always a those whom believe that they know more about electronics and interference on aircraft, and leave their junk on. Not even in "airplane" mode,which shows their ignorance even more, since ON just grinds the battery faster with zero gain. These geniuses have more inside knowledge than the FCC, the airlines, and the FAA, it seems. And since they never see the occasional adverse result of it in our cockpits, they assume it's all crap, someone exercising their authority for the sake of exercising authority.

I have deadheaded next to these ignorami, and they think it's pretty funny to blatantly leave their junk on. I just stay zipped unless there's some nasty weather at the other end, knowing that it most likely won't be a big deal.

When I'm flying the plane and will be doing a low-viz approach, however, I make the following PA: "Folks, it's amnesty time. For those of you who have your computers and phones, etc, not fully shut off, please do it now, no foul. Just do it. We are about to make a very electronics-intensive procedure, and given that I'm not a Boeing engineer nor test pilot, I would like full compliance with the federal law that says that these devices be off".

The flight attendants get a kick out of seeing a bunch of scofflaw elites and even a few "kettles" (I truly hate the way FTers use that term) turning off their smartphones.

I have always told my passengers exactly what is going on in irregular ops as well as in general. It has landed me at the Mahogany Table more than once, but I've never lied to my passengers. three weeks ago, during a very AA-esqe creeping delay that involved an airplane fresh out of a TIMCO Heavy Maintenance Visit, we tool delays for 1) the wrong safety briefing cards in ALL the seat backs, 2) an instrument screen going belly-up at engine start, a fuel leak, a passenger who's cabin boarded kennel dog had to go Tee-Tee..outside of security (during the briefing card delay) and subsequent timing-out of our duty limits. Our operations controller implored me to NOT make a PA announcement as to the reasons for all the delays, and ESPECIALLY (which I take to mean "double-don't-say") about the possibility of the pilots timing-out if they couldn't find another plane, swap people, cargo, and catering in 45 minutes.

The flight cancelled, and I just stood there and endured the stink-eye from the passengers. Not a lot of trust among them.

Can't wait to quit this gig. We used to call it "retiring" but now we either turn 65, lose our medial certificate, get fired, or die. Gotta take it for a while, though, because my wife's job just got outsourced.

FAB