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Pilot Confessions
The Case of the iPhone Blackout
by Joe Casey
holder on my phone, and I love it. It folds up when you put the phone in your pocket and ex- tends to allow you to insert the socket between your fingers. It is a neat gizmo. Plus, there’s also a PopSocket holder to hang the phone. I have holders in all my trucks and motorcycles and de- cided to put the holders in the airplanes I fly.
So, in one of the King Air 300s that I manage and fly, I found a nice piece of real estate on the left side of the panel. On a flat area where an old instrument had been removed, I installed the holder. That particular spot is on the left side of the yoke, above the array of switches near the pilot’s left knee. I loved the location because I could display approach plates for my flights. It worked great until it didn’t, and that is where this story begins.
I took off from Lufkin, Texas (KLFK) in the mighty King Air 300 and began to climb out south-
Where do you put your phone when flying? In my ground-bound life, it goes in my front pocket. I, probably like you, have joined the river of people that do everything on their phone, so there is no doubt that I’ll have the phone in the airplane when f lying. I mean, we all use Foref light or Garmin Pilot on our flights, right?
But, where does that phone get placed when flying? In training, I see pilots balance their phone on a thigh, result- ing in it almost always dropping to the floor at the most inopportune time. I have wedged it between my legs, but it seems that either my thigh or the seat (depending upon if the face is up or down) will make inputs to the phone face. I’ve taken hundreds of black pictures of the seat cushion and pocket-dialed more people in my Rolodex than the law should allow. It could go in a side pocket of the aircraft, but I tend to leave it there when I get out of the airplane, making that a high-risk spot. So, where does it go?
I figured I would get smart and install holders in all the airplanes we manage and fly. I use a “PopSocket” hand
12 • TWIN & TURBINE / March 2022
PHOTO COURTESY OF CLINT GOFF
bound. It was a hot, humid day, and the sky was filled with towering cumulus clouds with good (but not great) visibility. I turned on the autopilot and picked up my phone to look at the next flight publication. Then, I put the phone back into the holder, but I missed the holder. It was supposed to latch in, but instead, it fell from my hand down to the floor. On its way to the floor, it hit several other switches on the panel...important switches.
As the phone fell, it first hit the avionics power switch and then bounced off the “gang bar” that guards the bat- tery and generator switches. Effectively, the phone turned off four switches at once...quite the accomplishment for a single fall. It could not have misbehaved more had it an evil mind of its own. The phone promptly shut off all avionics and all electrical equipment in one fell swoop. I can’t tell you how disorienting it is for an entire panel to “go dark,” to lose the autopilot, and lose the ability to talk inside or outside the cockpit.
As any simulator instructor can advise, there is a great pause when a pilot is first administered an emergency.