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This was in vertical news yesterday and think it deserves a little attention. I was at a course a year ago and was told that a pilot from Canada was actually texting while doing a powerline patrol with a customer onboard. At a time when there are such rediculous rules laid out this seems to be more forefront on the safety board.

 

http://www.verticalmag.com/news/article/23552#.UWXFD7WsiSo

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Don't get me wrong i do not condone anyone texting and flying. I guess one would have to ask if it should be illegal to pickup a map and follow were you are. Should it be illegal to make a sat phone call while flying. What about looking through the good old VFR supplement for the frequency of the airport you were just forced to divert to because of bad weather. I could go on and on but think you get the message.

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I get your point but you are wrong,,,ha,,,no seriously you have a point and it is illegal to use a phone while driving yet we can speak on radio while doing all manner of tasks. But texting is not the same and am not able to say exactly why as am not articulate enough to do so. But have witnessed many texting conversations which do not take a few minutes but go on for hours. It would seem that this happened with the accident pilot. I would guess that we can have a short or long conversation on the phone and it consumes alot of our attention whereas texting is an on again off again focal point. Many people i have witnessed seem to be diluted with the text conversation to the point the person is unfocused. Many whom text are adament they are not so diuluted but reminds of arguing with a smoker years ago that smoking was bad for you. I do not want to get into the social aspects or lack of etiquette of the textors of the world, only to bring up that there is safety hazard which most are ignoring. There has to be a reason it was in the report and to ignore their findings of the pilot having 85 text conversations while on duty would be wrong. And they don't really get into whether the pilot was texting while flying so looking at your map or going thru the old cfs while walking around the aircraft would be somewhat fubarred as well as texting so therein lies the point they are making.

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I got an SMS memo about this very issue this morning... :lol:

 

I have on occasion texted while at the controls, but for work related reasons, and always while the aircraft is at altitude and in conditions where it was safe. For example, advising my CP or customer that I'm x miles inbound, or that I'm late and could they please extend my SAR time, etc. These are activities directly related to flying the aircraft and as was mentioned by just looking above, is no more of a distraction than folding a VNC with both hands while holding the cyclic between your knees or flipping through the CFS. I have a bunch of pre-programmed text messages in my phone ("ETA ...", "RTB for fuel, back in...", "Running late, don't let the hangar rat go home just yet :P "), so I don't spend a whole lot of time actually typing, and my phone sits on top of the glareshield, so that even if I'm looking at my phone or typing on it, I'm still looking forward, and not at my thigh. I find that entering coordinates in the GNS 430 on the bottom of the instrument panel is much more time consuming and risky than texting...

 

I've seen pilots Facebooking, chatting and texting, or even watching videos while flying, which I think is the kind of thing that can lead to distractions that have nothing to do with actually flying. I think it's important to make a distinction here between using the text feature of a phone in a way that increases flying productivity versus chitchatting with your mistresses and exchanging naughty pics Tiger-style while at the controls... :rolleyes:

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I've seen pilots Facebooking, chatting and texting, or even watching videos while flying, which I think is the kind of thing that can lead to distractions that have nothing to do with actually flying. I think it's important to make a distinction here between using the text feature of a phone in a way that increases flying productivity versus chitchatting with your mistresses and exchanging naughty pics Tiger-style while at the controls... :rolleyes:

 

Try that driving a motor vehicile and you are in deep shite.

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considering there is avionics with text capabilities I do not see the problem with doing the same on a cell phone.

 

just a topic for people to moan about .... yawn

So four people lost their lives and one of the main causes was a pilot distracted to the point of not checking fuel by texting a female coworker and this is your responce? Yawn???? This is not a thread about sending a text on a sat phone or messaging system, perhaps if you read the report you would see this. The fact is that the pilot was distracted ON THE GROUND by sending/recieving 85 text messages to the point where he did not check his fuel, and when he did notice took off again, then did, and you will like this, an incorrect auto.

 

And skidz those pilots who watch videos etc while flying are not being led to distractions,,,,,they are damd well distracted already.

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If I am not mistaken they said he did NOT send or receive a text in the 11 minutes leading up to the accident.

 

The warning panel was on dim, I would speculate he switched it to dim as to not have the others on board get alarmed.

 

I am surprised you guys aren't talking about the bigger point the NTSB is trying to make of this accident, improper entry into autorotation buy first lowering the collective instead of pulling the cyclic aft. I believe they are calling for a change in the way pilots are trained to perform auto's.

 

They said that they went into a simulator and recreated the flight and if they lowered the collective before pulling back on the cyclic, a safe landing was not possible from that altitude, even though the aircraft was at cruise (500ft AGL?).

 

But hey, I'm "just an engineer".

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