What kind of unit do you have? I'm shopping for one now, and leaning towards the Garmin Ultrex Vista. Any thoughts?

Mine works just fine indoors in a one story house with a tar-and gravel roof.

On an aircraft it has to be near the window since the signal cannot penetrate the metal skin.

It was kind of fun for a few flights, but then the novelty wore off. If BA really allows GPS on Concorde, -that- might be worth trying!

You may end up with problems, as most of the GPS units for which I've seen specs only read up to 999 knots, which is a bit too slow for Concorde's M2.02 cruising speed :-)

The windows on Concorde were too small and probably too hot for me to get an accurate reading. It did aquire but speed and altitude were going up and down all the time....

I use the eMap and a GPS V, the V has better reception. I also use a PocketPC with TomTom (SiRF) receiver but it's reception is weak...

I use my Garmin GPS regularly on flights. It works fairly well. I usually don't get questioned about it.

I use it with Street Atlas USA on my laptop. This gives a moving map that can be used to identify things on the ground. Not terribly exciting... But, it can be entertaining when you travel near significant landmarks.

You might have problems with your GPS on the Concorde if it is flying near its maximum altitude! GPS units that work at altitudes > 60,000 feet or 1,000+ knots are considered "munitions" per 22 CFR 121 (more details). Thus, it should not work at high speeds/alititudes.

This site lists airlines that are believed to approve the use of GPS on flights. (Note: Even if the airline approves it, the captain is still in charge!).

Here is a congressional subcommittee report on the topic: The Subcommittee on Aviation Hearing on Portable Electronic Devices: Do they really pose a safey hazard on aircraft? It mentions GPS as permissable above 10,000 feet: "In the middle of these two extremes are portable electronic devices that can only be operated before departure, while the aircraft door is open, or after the aircraft has reached an altitude of 10,000 feet. When the aircraft is descending, all PEDs in this category must be turned off. These actions are usually controlled by flight attendant announcements throughout the flight. The PEDs subject to these restrictions include CD players, laptop computers, electronic video games, and GPS navigation sets."

From the Regs. sited for GPS: ..."Designed for producing navigation results above 60,000 feet altitude and at 1,000 knots velocity or greater;...".

_AND_ in the above means the unit has to do both. The highest speed spec. I've ever seen on a consumer GPS is 999 mph (868knots); ergo, not a proscribed item on the munitions list.

A couple months ago on two different Alaska flights the FA demanded the GPS be turned off in flight.

But no one has tried to confiscate it or forbid it from coming on board.

What is the rationale behind preventing in-flight gps use?

There have been a couple decent threads on this in the past year. While people have discussed various reasons as to how the airlines might rationalize banning them on planes, I think the consensus is that there's no reasonable reason to ban them. I've been able to use it on planes just fine. I usually get a flight attendant who asks me what it is. When I show it to them, they're always fascinated with it. They think it's neat to see our current speed and where we're located. I've never had a flight attendant tell me to turn it off.

I have used my Magellan Meridian Platinum on many airplanes when I have the window seat. It very accurately displays velocity and location on its moving map display. It is a lot of fun to see yourself flying over points on the ground and look at the map to see where you are.

The Magellan has a listing of airports and you can set ORD as your final destination and it'll give you the ETA as well.

Lots of fun on a long boring plane flight.

AA has banned them, but I've never been asked to put mine away on an AA flight.

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AAdvantage Gold, Holiday Inn Platinum

I have been using portable GPS systems for about 10 years, and have used them on commercial aircraft many times.

American Airlines now prohibits them, and says so in their in-flight magazine. Nevertheless, I have used my portable GPS many times on AA flights, and I have been told twice, quite sternly I might add, to turn it off. I do not know of any other airlines that prohibit GPS.

IMHO, airlines should WELCOME portable GPS units. They pose absolutely no danger to any on-board electronic systems, since they are receivers, not transmitters, and any EMF field they emit is incredibly tiny. If passengers had them on board on 9/11, they might have been able to figure out the upcoming events, and even prevented them, as the cell-phone using passengers were able to do on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania.

Not only that, as other postings have said, they are just plain FUN on airplanes.

How can we convince AA to allow GPS on their flights?

Some passengers did have them, I believe that was part of the problem. It's sort of how they got to the World Trade Center.

The people with cell phones figured it out because the other two planes had already crashed into the towers and people were told what had happended. Everybody on board could have had a GPS on those two planes, I know that my unit tells me where I am, not where I am going to. It never would have predicted they were flying into a building.

GPS would have done nothing to help the people in the first two planes, that's the silliest statement I've ever seen here.

Can anyone recommend good high-resolution mapping software for my laptop, compatable with a Garmin III+? I already have most of the Garmin Map Source CDs and Delorme Street Atlas. I'm really looking for a more global physical mapping software, similar to Topo USA, but worldwide. Thanks.