SDtraveler

I mainly fly NW (or I guess DL now, but I usually stay on NW routes) and when I'm sitting on regionals or back in coach (no upgrade ) I usually have to take my cell phone off my belt since my butt and phone don't all fit in the seat. I used to make a habit of clipping it to the seat back pocket, but doing so on regionals (CRJ2 / SAAB) seems to be a sin, but when doing it on the regular aircraft (DC9, A319-320, 757... etc.) it's hit or miss on whether one can get away with doing that.

I had one FA tell me to get a smaller phone, I really wanted to tell her to invent a mini 'smart' phone, and I'd be the first to get it.

tony_kawakawa

I recently had the pleasure to fly on Philippines Airlines, and was seated in the exit row, window seat.

They had placed the magazine pouch on the cabin wall at my face level, so I was constantly having the safety cards, in-flight magazines, et-all in my face.

After take off, I had enough of that and proceeded to empty the contents of the pouch onto the floor.

I honestly don't know who would have the magazine pouches placed at such an obnoxious place.

YXU Dude

well then, what about those heavy metal beverage carts with all those bottles and cans? and those heavy carafes of hot coffee? there's a .0001% chance of injury there. get ready to say goodbye to inflight service.

as for myself, whenever i'm the first to sit in a row, i grab all the crap from the pocket in front of me and stuff it into another one.

Jellosh0ts

I had 4 flights in 3 days on Southwest last week, this was brought up on 3 of the 4 flights, each with different crews... Same excuse of "the FAA is really cracking down on us" too....

czarina

Well I don't know about saving lives either. I am not personally aware of the frequency of incidents involving injury due to projectile laptops, but it is either happened at least once, or has a remote chance of happening.

However, I'm thinking that the airlines are trying to save cash by reducing the wear and tear on the seatbacks, and any possible liability if someone DID get injured from some item falling/flying out of the pocket.

sbm12

Tell that to FR, AF or EK, all of which permit GSM usage on at least part of their fleets where the plane is equipped with a transponder to facilitate communication.

Or is the installation of the relay considered sufficient "modification" in your assertion?

alanh

Those are required to be stowed at the same times your laptop is required to be stowed.

LarryJ

It's not the "relay" itself, actually a self-contained cell, but the other modifications that go along with the installation of the cell.

The modification includes additional shielding of sensitive equipment and the modified aircraft is tested to ensure that interference does not occur. This is part of the TSO process for certifying the modification. As with any cell system, the cell communicates with each phone that is in range on a common data channel and tells each phone which audio channels to use and to increase or decrease it's transmitting power as needed so that each phone is transmitting at the minimum power necessary to maintain a good connection. Since the "cell" is installed inside the airplane it allows the phones to work on their minimum power setting instead of at, or near, their maximum as would be the case if the phone is trying to maintain contact with a ground station. The system can also be set to instruct all phones to stop transmitting during the critical phases of flight and if the flight crew is experiencing suspected interference. In a modified airplane the flight crew is aware of the presence of the system and their procedures will incorporate appropriate steps to accomplish if interference is experienced or suspected.

These systems do not use the cell system for communications between the aircraft and the ground so the FCC ban is not an issue.