Airplane use

Internal on the 7xx vs flip-up on 3xx-6xx. I imagine the 2xx works about the same as a 7xx that way.

I've played with the onboard systems on a Virgin Atlantic flight... and it was a lot of fun...

Now I can entertain myself on a Southwest flight too... I think the Nuvi dashboard/speed display would be fun to watch in the air...

I agree it'll be fun to watch your speed and heading while flying.

I ma flying next week, im going to see what it does.

I used one on a charter jet. It shows you moving across the map very quickly, 100's of miles an hour. Pretty cool. I talked to a pilot who told me that it would be detectable by the pilots who would hear a regular beeping or ticking noise (I don't remember which).

would be nice to have a contest to upload a pic of your gps to show the top speed of the plane you were riding...no prize...just bragging rights. Asianfire could be the judge.

I took my i5 to Florida to use down there, and of course it was in my carry-on. I had an aisle seat on the flight down, but was next to a window coming back.

I had to hold the unit very near the window to get a signal, but it showed 513 mph, 515mph, etc. Mostly it said driving[sic] north 525 mph. DO NOT TRY TO SET A DESTINATION OR IT WILL CONSTANTLY SAY, "Recalculating, recalculating," etc.

You can ALWAYS find out over which town you are flying. Ask your unit to find anything (ATM, stores, gas station) and select the first one that comes up. It will tell you the store name, the town, and the state.

Lot of fun. I couldn't try the thing about seeing the runway, because I turned it off as we were descending.

BTW, is that really true about the pilot being able to hear a GPS in use? I can't imagine that's so because GPSs are receivers, not transmitters (like EZ Passes are).

I recently tried my Nuvi on Air Canada. Was in the window seat, and although it took a few minutes to acquire the Sats. it held the signal most of the way. It has a SirfIII chipset.

I checked with the stewardess before turning it on and she said it was ok to use it once the seat belt sign was off.

I set the navigation to off road and it plotted a straight line course from my origin to destination without constantly recalculating. I think the max speed I had was about 843 Km/Hr.

...the pilot could tell anything. As you say, the GPSr ("r" stands for receiver) doesn't broadcast anything, it only receives the same signal that the cockpit GPS receives. The only remote possiblility is if it has something built in to transmit to the FM radio in your car. I don't know if they make GPS units that will do that or not, but I know my Nüvi isn't capable of transmission.

The argument regarding ANY receiver is that they ALL transmit to a minute degree. There is an intermediate frequency (IF) that is broadcast (albeit at an extremely low level) whenever a receiver receives a signal.

How do you think the radar detector detectors work? They are extremely sensitive receivers that are designed to receive the IF that the radar detectors transmit. Those radar detectors that claim to be "stealth" units that can defeat the detector detectors are designed to minimize or shield their IF broadcasts, making them harder to see.

Bottom line, a GPSr will broadcast a signal. It is a very weak signal, but it is there. The question is - does it effect the avionics on an airplane. IMHO (and the opinion of many airlines) is NO. Some however, don't want to take the risk.

Joe

Lowrance handheld GPS works fine at a window seat. I have used mine numerous times. Lot of fun to use. Being a retired FAA folk I used to do a lot of air travel and it gets boring real fast. Used my GPS a lot and other times used my digital scanner with earphones on aircraft. Just scan all aviation band freqs. Since I wore my FAA badge I never had any problems using equipment WHILE airborne.

I was able to use my Nuvi 350 on a Southwest flight(it took a while to lock in), max speed was around 600mph. It was very disheartening to realize that just as we were about to land and get out of the thunderstorm that was making me turn green, I could see we were turning around and going back out over the ocean. It was cool to look up the town hall or other businesses to see what town I was flying over at the time.

Don't believe that pilot... GPSr don't make enough RF noise for him to hear it on his headphones. If he hears beeping it is most likely coming from a cell phone that was left on as it is hunting for a tower.

I checked with USA3000 and they advised that a GPS unit could be used during CRUISE. Taking flight on Friday 2/8. Can't wait to try and will post results.

Remember just because the Airline said is OK the pilot has the last word.
Don't be flashing the unit around or bragging to the passenger sitting next to you, as paranoid as some passenger are they may call the flight attendant and make a big deal of you using a GPSr in flight.

Just get a set of earphones and us it as a MP3 player.

My Street Pilot 340 didn't acquire satelites, so I was never able to watch it in action on our flight to or from AZ.

Took my 680 along with me on a trip last week. Set it to "off road" as someone suggested, and entered the next airport on my trip as destination. The receiver was muted, so no sounds. Since it was set to "off road" there was no need for "recalculation." The top speed on the first leg was 560mph, on the second leg was 580 mph. On the return trip, 606 mph was top speed and 616 mph was top speed for the final return leg.
Since I sat beside the window, getting satellites was not so much of a problem. My concern was the battery. It was on for most of the first leg of the return journey, charged the unit during layover, and had enough power for the final leg.
It was interesting. I ran through some of those POIs to see the nearest restaurants when we passed over towns/cities.
By the way, it was a Delta flight. I made sure not to flash the unit to passengers beside me.

I recently used my old eTrex on a flight from Chicago to China. I wasn't about to hold it up to the window for the entire trip so I would turn it on every couple hours and set a waypoint so I could see where we were. We were just north of Alaska and over Siberia. MapSource only has North America so I had to plot them in Streets and trips to see where I was.

Had no problems with WestJet and although I had a window seat put the GPS on the fold-out table. Worked Great!

Was really useful too as we collected our overhead bags before we started the decent and were able to get off quickly.

Incidently on a longer flight it gives you an idea of how much battery time you really have.

BTW, I have audible so I just downloaded my latest novel, put on the headphones and off I went.....Great way to travel!

I always ask a flight attendant if it is ok to turn my GPS on during flights. They usually ask the Captain, and so far I have never been turned down.

On one occasion the pilot asked if he could borrow it (Garming III plus at the time) and after having it in the cockpit for approximately 30 minutes he brought it back, sat down and told me how close the readings were to what he was getting from his cockpit navigation system.

The three plus was really cool during flight because it showed compass heading, ground speed, altitude and the highways, cities and towns we were flying over.

GPSing is a great way to spend sometime during a flight.... enjoy

gwr50

Ok, so what did he say? How close was it to the airplane's GPS systems?

While some friends and I were flying from Newark, NJ, to Delhi, India, I turned on the GPS (and held it near the window for a fix). (Continental's policies explicitly allowed GPSr's in the in-flight magazine.)

It was a kick to see that we were near Tashkent, Uzbekistan. I set a waypoint over NE Afghanistan, where the altitude was 34,067 feet.

Of course, as my friends pointed out, I could get some of the same information from the flight monitor on the entertainment system, but that wasn't quite the same.

You guys are right; satellite locks can only be acquired if you're by the window seat. I use my ETrex Legend C whenever I am on a commercial flight. The zoom level has to be set out to about 10 miles- otherwise if it's too close (like 500 ft.) the refresh rate on the gpsr's display wouldn't be able to keep up- all you'd see is a blank screen that keeps blinking. Speed is usually around 550 mph. I also set one data field to display altitude and another to display vertical speed, so I can see the rate of descent. Usually about 500-750 fpm is the norm- otherwise passenger heart rates would climb faster than inflation! I'm new to this site and I'm so happy to see that there are so many people out there with the same passion for gps navigation that I have. Love this site and all the user support.

But then again, sometimes it does not work even on a window seat.. When I went on an international flight to the Philippines it worked only on the outbound trip, on the way inbound it was kinda hit or miss.

Did you switch sides on the plane so that you'd be seeing the same part of the sky?

Took a Continental flight from Columbus Ohio to Houston Texas and had a window seat. Had a C340 and it had trouble initially, but finally found some sats. Fasted speed was 506MPH before I fell asleep. Forgot to check the max speed indicator...guess I'll have to do that. Anyway, I had to zoom out or it to not be too spazzy but it was fun following our travels, while I was awake anyway.

Hi All,

I've used my IQUE3600 with an external antenna stuck on the window, and it worked fine. I could locate my position at all time and was able to tell the names of the cities and other areas we passed over.

It seems that the smaller planes such as the DC-9 and 727 were faster than the Boeing 757 and 767s.

What is more fun was to download the TRACKS into MapSource and see your actual flight. With speed and altitude being shown on track propertied. There also you can also view the profile of the trip and actually see the altitude changed along the route.

One time when landing in Louisville we were about to touch down ( over the runway ) when the pilot did full throttle and we went back up and circles around and then landed. This all showed up on the map in MapSource and was interesting.

PS to do this properly you need to have the ROUTE PREFERENCE to OFF ROAD

H Hannah
Nuvi 750 and IQUE 3600

Yes I did switch sides but could not acquire much signal till we were close to Japan. The C330 was always asking.."Are you indoors" "Has it been hundreds of miles since your last location?" or something like that (I can't remember the actual words.) Then it went from Aquiring to Locating satellites instead. I did sit on the right side on the outbound and incoming flights, so I guess it would make sense to switch sides. I did not try long enough on the other side because the plane was pretty full.

This is a question that generates a lot of comment and confusion on the newsgroup, but few people have the necessary experience to give an answer based on reasoned engineering experience.

http://www.gpsinformation.net/airgps/gpsrfi.htm

Bob

Tried to get a signal over the grand canyon on a recent trip. Could not get one at around 24k feet sitting at the window

Last year I took a flight from Montreal to Detroit and used my Garmin GPSMap76S all the way from taxi out to landing. I had a window seat and just pointed the unit out through the window. The cabin crew were very interested in the unit and were surprised to see it working so well. I have kept the track, it has pride of place in my collection, second only to my waypoint on the Grenwich meridian.

I flew last May 2007 on three different Continental flights between Toronto - Houston - Utah and all crew allowed GPSr use, only after take-off. It was fun to watch where I was flying over, matching up the highways on the ground with the mapping software.

I had no problem getting a signal in a window or aisle seat with a Legend CX. I now have a Legend HCX. It was fun to see the elevation profile - how long we cruised at which altitude. Gotta love technology!!!

i tried my NUVI 360 on a plane trip, and it worked perfectly, showing the plane's speed, and my "car" icon moving quite fast over the countryside.

I've asked permission to use it on various flights, and have been told both yes and no, so who knows.

Would enabling WAAS provide any benefit (signal reception improvement?) while on the aircraft?

Thx.

WAAS might improve accuracy, but not the actual signal reception.

Most aircraft don't have GPS systems yet.

I just bought a garmin nuvii 200. I plan to use it in my car as well as in my gyrocopter when I get it ready to fly.
I would love to find a helicopter icon to use as the vehicle icon.
Anyway if you set it to off road use, it will show you a direct path. i put in one of the small local airports the other day when driveing and it showed me a line to it, when zoomed out it showed the highways and some land marks like lakes and greens I guess are golf courses. I bought my gps used so don't have a manual.
I love the touch screen. I think this will be a great cheap GPS to use in VFR flight conditions.

A buddy of mine flys for FEDEX, he took his motorcycle model garmin up and he said it zipped right along flashing the roads and stuff. he now has a top speed of 650 m.p.h. in the gps he loves to mess with people with when they ask how fast his bike is..lol

has anyone else used a Nuvii 200 in an aircraft yet? and what down loads can be found here that I would be able to use format wise for the Nuvii 200 that would inhance it's aircraft use?

thanks great site, this is my first GPS.

Here's a link to the Nuvi 200 set and go manual:

http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/1512_SetupandGo!.pdf

I work on the fact that the GPS is like any other electronic device that is not a transmitter so when they say it is OK to use things like toys etc - out comes the Nuvi 250. Some airline staff actually get interested! Hold up to the window for a while to get the signals - sometimes takes a few minutes - and back up to refresh if the signal is lost. Certainly adds interest to otherwise boring trips.

I flew from Orlando to Indianapolis and my c580 worked the entire way. Top speed was 571 mph! DO NOT enable any sort of navigation ... the unit will constantly keep recalculating.

"Most aircraft don't have GPS systems yet."

Actually, it's the other way around these days. 10 years ago, I'd agree with you, but today, the old 727's, and 737 (the old ones) and many DC-9's have been retired. You don't see many DC-10's or L1011's flying around either except in the freight industry.

If you look in the cockpit and see mostly CRT's instead of traditional "instruments" you can assume they probably have GPS installed. While not a guarantee, it's a safe bet. While some commercial aircraft still use ground based (VOR) triangulation, direct routing (save fuel) is usually done via GPS.

You'll get pretty good reception in a window seat, but the aisle will leave you disappointed. As mentioned, without line-of-sight, the weak GPS signals just won't get to your handheld.

Just got a refurbished (but like new) Garmin Nuvi 250 and took it on a plane ride from Wash Dulles to Indy Int'l. Wow! it was so cool. I had a window seat (a must from what I've read) and as soon as electronic devices were allowed I turned it on and held it up the window. Took a couple minutes to acquire a signal but once it did the results were good...for the most part it stayed locked in even while laying on the tray table. Only lost the signal briefly about 3 times in the 1hr 15 min flight. Used the off road function and set route from IAD to IND. Some of the data: ETA was dead on within 2 mins of actual landing, clocked a max speed of 510mph, and a max altitude of 27.7K (even though the Capt. said we would be cruising at 32k).
All zoom/pan functions worked great. Anyways, it is a lot of fun, try it if the airline allows it!

Re: A post by cltmte in this thread where he indicated his max speed was saved in his Garmin at 587 MPH. Wouldn't it be cool if a state trooper pulled him over and got a look at the max speed in his Nuvi. I'd love to see the look on his face.

The last commercial flight I was on (last-week) I was told to put it away or we will take it away.... But it is fun to check things out while in flight.

Mayhaps mention which airline -- 'policy' is not consistant across carriers (or, for that matter, their aircrews -- LOL!)

/.

I tried it once on US Airways without realizing that US Airways does not allow it. I could get anything anyway. After 10-15 minutes of nothing onscreen, I simply turned my Nuvi 660 off.

Just flew on SOuthwest into John Wayne/Orange County (SNX) and was thinking the same thing - saw what looked like a strip mine in the area as we were making the landing approach - and i'm poindering next time im gonna try leaving my garmin on and in my bag to see if i can determine what that thing was....

I tried it once on US Airways without realizing that US Airways does not allow it. I could get anything anyway. After 10-15 minutes of nothing onscreen, I simply turned my Nuvi 660 off.