I put my phone in airplane mode if for no other reason than if it’s constantly trying to connect to a signal or Wi-Fi, it drains the battery way faster.
Pilot here. Still on the A320 series it’s obligatory to turn off the electrical devices for low visibility approaches (ILS Cat2/3) as aircraft’s navigational systems are not protected (at least certified) against RF interference.
As of Jan 31, 2024 any planes still not hardened their altimeters to meet group 4 performance are restricted from flying auto land, I/II ILS ; and for the most part the airlines still flying them aren’t using those planes in US airspace. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t any flying just that when they are they’re restricted by the FAA as to how they can operate.
As people lose more and more real freedoms [lower real wages, more crowded roads, small retail stores swallowed up by mega-corps] they cling to false freedoms. They will keep those phones on, because it’s their right to, dammit!
3G has been turned off in a lot of places, but 2G is still very much used globally. It’s still the last fallback for phones to maintain basic texting and calling functionality. In many places emergency services also use it for e.g. emergency information via text message.
Can confirm. I own a pair of noise canceling earmuffs (meant for sport shooting; my dad was into guns). They’re completely unshielded so I can pick up interference from all sorts of signals. It’s fun to switch my phone between different networks to hear what 2G/3G/LTE/5G sounds like. I can even hear WiFi and find the dead spots in my house.
Point I’m making is that GSM is still sticking around here as a backup so when I drop my phone to 2G it sounds exactly the same as it does in this video.
Next time you’re on a flight, download a GPS speedometer app and launch it right before takeoff. You’ll notice that it’ll accurately measure the plane’s speed up to around 500 MPH, before it suddenly stops giving you a speed readout.
Like the other person said, this is to prevent your average dude building a guided missile using an old phone they have lying around.
Probably would just use an IMU exactly as the plane itself already does for its own navigation.
They get a lock on the ground, synchronize the IMU with the Earth’s orbit, and they keep track of where they’ve moved from the origin, supplemented by GPS.
What? Every smartphone I can remember owning has gotten a GPS signal if I hold it up to the window. Plenty of planes have GPS on board too. If there is a speed lockout, a 737 isn’t enough to break that threshold.
Last time I flew, there was no signal at all while flying.
There’s a number of factors that lead to that.
The cell base station antennas have a relatively narrow vertical beamwidth and are typically aimed a few degrees below horizontal. (Aircraft tend not to operate at that altitude)
usable range of each cell base stations is typically <50 km.
Cell base stations are optimized for communicating with mobiles moving less than 90km/h.
Given all that, if you happen to get a signal, you’ll be handing off between towers far too fast and too frequently for the network to reliably deal with.
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I put my phone in airplane mode if for no other reason than if it’s constantly trying to connect to a signal or Wi-Fi, it drains the battery way faster.
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That disruption is from a 2G/GSM handset. Those networks were turned off a decade ago.
Pilot here. Still on the A320 series it’s obligatory to turn off the electrical devices for low visibility approaches (ILS Cat2/3) as aircraft’s navigational systems are not protected (at least certified) against RF interference.
Stupid article.
As of Jan 31, 2024 any planes still not hardened their altimeters to meet group 4 performance are restricted from flying auto land, I/II ILS ; and for the most part the airlines still flying them aren’t using those planes in US airspace. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t any flying just that when they are they’re restricted by the FAA as to how they can operate.
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General observation.
As people lose more and more real freedoms [lower real wages, more crowded roads, small retail stores swallowed up by mega-corps] they cling to false freedoms. They will keep those phones on, because it’s their right to, dammit!
HowardBealeRant.avi
3G has been turned off in a lot of places, but 2G is still very much used globally. It’s still the last fallback for phones to maintain basic texting and calling functionality. In many places emergency services also use it for e.g. emergency information via text message.
Can confirm. I own a pair of noise canceling earmuffs (meant for sport shooting; my dad was into guns). They’re completely unshielded so I can pick up interference from all sorts of signals. It’s fun to switch my phone between different networks to hear what 2G/3G/LTE/5G sounds like. I can even hear WiFi and find the dead spots in my house.
Point I’m making is that GSM is still sticking around here as a backup so when I drop my phone to 2G it sounds exactly the same as it does in this video.
GSM is still very much alive in many countries.
Last time I flew, there was no signal at all while flying. not even GPS!
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That makes sense! Thanks
Next time you’re on a flight, download a GPS speedometer app and launch it right before takeoff. You’ll notice that it’ll accurately measure the plane’s speed up to around 500 MPH, before it suddenly stops giving you a speed readout.
Like the other person said, this is to prevent your average dude building a guided missile using an old phone they have lying around.
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Probably would just use an IMU exactly as the plane itself already does for its own navigation.
They get a lock on the ground, synchronize the IMU with the Earth’s orbit, and they keep track of where they’ve moved from the origin, supplemented by GPS.
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Thus draining the phone’s battery much faster.
Same thing happens if you are camping in a remote location with weak or non-existent coverage.
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What? Every smartphone I can remember owning has gotten a GPS signal if I hold it up to the window. Plenty of planes have GPS on board too. If there is a speed lockout, a 737 isn’t enough to break that threshold.
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There’s a number of factors that lead to that.
The cell base station antennas have a relatively narrow vertical beamwidth and are typically aimed a few degrees below horizontal. (Aircraft tend not to operate at that altitude)
usable range of each cell base stations is typically <50 km.
Cell base stations are optimized for communicating with mobiles moving less than 90km/h.
Given all that, if you happen to get a signal, you’ll be handing off between towers far too fast and too frequently for the network to reliably deal with.
There’s no way there was no GPS, maybe your phone was trying to base your location with antennas and not GPS