Re: B777 incident Perth Australia

.....and on a quick scan of passenger electronic devices section, there's nothing to indicate that a cellphone could cause a loss of control. I don't want passengers using cellphones any more than you, and I can comprehend the remote posssibility that a phone might interfere with comms or nav, but "loss of control"...
Now, you're a pilot. Explain the electronics and physics of loss of control via cellphone.... 

From my understanding of light flying light aircraft.....generally you
won't lose control of the aircraft.  If you have a loss of instruments
or an inaccurate indication at a critical time of the flight (take
off and landing and approach) when the work load is extremely
high then the distraction certainly takes away from your ability
to fly.  You can also have a CFIT (controlled flight into terrain).
The plan could be flying perfectly normal level and straight but
you happen to hit something.  For instance on an IFR approach you
are typically given 'vectors to final' (not including visual
approaches).  This means ATC will say "fly heading 060, maintain
3000 feet until established on the final approach course, cleared
for the SFO ILS 2-8-right."  So you go from a published route to
flying a heading until your course deflection indicator (CDI) that
indicates your final approach course to the runway pops off of
a full scale deflection and 'establishing' you on the final
approach course.  In reality you are going from a positive guidance
on a published route to flying a heading to intercept another
published route.   In one of those cases listed, the CDI never
moved or was jumping full scale deflection on either side.  If the
approach had mountains on one side, they could have flown into those
mountains not knowing they passed the final approach course.

On *most* aircraft with single pieces of equipment unlike transport
jets with multiple pieces of the same equipment that work on the
voting system (2 autopilots say go left and the third says goes
right, the 2 A/P's win), if the CDI is to the left (actually
it points to a heading except on a backcourse LOC) then the autopilot
usually turns for a 30 degree intercept except in approach mode but
more or less the same.  If the needle is off, the A/P will chase it.
Yea the pilot should know where he is at all times but throw in
some wind shear alerts, thunderstorms, a CAT II approach (no lower
than 100 feet off the ground the pilot MUST see the runway environment),
etc, it can get hairy very quickly even with 2 pilots.

The major objection to cell phone use aloft appears to be from the cellphone side of the issue, not the a/c side, and already considerably more liberal policies seem to be in place among many carriers, with cellphones lighting up about the time the a/c hits the taxiway inbound and FAs looking to insure they're off at some point a while after leaving the gate (although the number of phones which folks forget to turnoff runs at a pretty high percentage. Most never know until the phone rings. 

agreed.  but better to hope you get all off or as few as possible.  Most
of the time there won't be any problem at all but can you imagine 300
cell phones on broadcasting full power at the same time?  Yikes.

Gerald
.

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