Comments on: Cell phones, planes, and the Canada-U.S. border https://lahso.megginson.com/2006/09/28/cell-phones-planes-and-the-canada-us-border/ Flying a small plane. Wed, 04 Oct 2006 00:58:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Aviatrix https://lahso.megginson.com/2006/09/28/cell-phones-planes-and-the-canada-us-border/#comment-369 Wed, 04 Oct 2006 00:58:38 +0000 http://www.megginson.com/blogs/lahso/archives/2006/09/28/cell-phones-planes-and-the-canada-us-border/#comment-369 Neat observation, and I have also observed behaviour that I explained by the [independently conceived] “too many towers” hypothesis.

]]> By: david https://lahso.megginson.com/2006/09/28/cell-phones-planes-and-the-canada-us-border/#comment-368 Fri, 29 Sep 2006 02:42:31 +0000 http://www.megginson.com/blogs/lahso/archives/2006/09/28/cell-phones-planes-and-the-canada-us-border/#comment-368 Fly-in Dutchman: I didn’t think of the problem of too many towers — I’ll watch that more closely and compare rural and urban areas in the future. Maybe it’s time to invest in a SatPhone.

Niss: it usually takes about 2:30 to fly from Ottawa to Boston (a bit south of Boston, actually) in my Warrior, depending on the winds. A couple of years ago, it took me almost 4:00 to get home against a low-level winter jet, and combined with moderate and occasional severe turbulence over the mountains, that was a brutal flight.

Outbound, I have to stop at Massena NY to clear customs, and that adds a bit to the trip. On the way home direct to Ottawa, I could have made about 2:15, but I throttled back to 60% power to save gas and arrive at my arranged customs time in Ottawa.

]]> By: Flyin Dutchma https://lahso.megginson.com/2006/09/28/cell-phones-planes-and-the-canada-us-border/#comment-367 Fri, 29 Sep 2006 00:42:03 +0000 http://www.megginson.com/blogs/lahso/archives/2006/09/28/cell-phones-planes-and-the-canada-us-border/#comment-367 From my experience coverage seems to be sporadic above 3000 feet agl for me and my Blackberry. Just on principle of operation of cell phones (from what I have gathered) and my experience in the plane is that in remote areas with less cell towers I can get reception up to FL180. This happened to me on a trip from Labrador to Ottawa and between the middle of nowhere and the end of the earth my hip vibrated and I had a text message. I then continued to send back and forth emails while at 18,000 feet. Now I have watched the bars when climbing out of a place like Toronto and have emails qued to send and they won’t go after about 3000 feet. Also, a friend who also flies replied to my text at 27,000 feet over nowhereville Manitoba. So I guess if it has fewer cell towers to choose from it is easier for it to lock on to one opposed to having so many to deal with. Just my uninformed opinion based on bastardized testing 🙂

]]> By: Niss Feiner https://lahso.megginson.com/2006/09/28/cell-phones-planes-and-the-canada-us-border/#comment-366 Thu, 28 Sep 2006 19:44:17 +0000 http://www.megginson.com/blogs/lahso/archives/2006/09/28/cell-phones-planes-and-the-canada-us-border/#comment-366 Weird. I usually keep my cell on during my flights too and you can always hear it in the VHF. I think its just looking for towers. Kind of annoying at times. How long did it take you to get to Boston?

]]>