Airplane use

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.

My NuVI worked great on WestJet from Halifax to Calgary. Was able to see the tracking and once I zoomed out it worked great. Love that 766kph on the max speed!

Only problem I had was battery life.....5hours wqas too much..

It was very useful as I knew when we landed that the plane was lined up to the runway....very cool!

I flew on American, Southwest, and Airtran recently. All 3 listed devices that could be used in the back of their onboard magazines.

My Nuvi 200 only has the North America map. So how can I get a map for another continent if I fly out of North America using on the airplane? Purchase through Garmin?

LOL makes 2 of us

I fly Southwest quite a bit and always turn my 660 on once I sit down. Love to see how fast we taxi, been between 20-23 mph. Great to watch the speed in the air and really tell where I am at in relationship to the ground. Make sure you put it into off road mode if you are going to calculate est time to destination.

Have a look through http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15809

Not a perfect map but should give us a better idea of our location than the installed map. Read the bits about extracting the file and where it should go. I have a 250W (similar???) and it goes in the unit not on the SD card. Rename the old file and BACKUP before you do anything. Works without resetting anything though I note some people do it differently and have it as an option - can't see any advantage???

Of to Europe (from Australia) in a few hours so it will get a good tryout. Have the full Europe map on SD card for when I get there. Bought online through an ebay dealer, unlike TomTom there are lots of people who sell Garmin maps - lots of choice, just pick the best price and convenience for you.

I have used my Nuvi-650 on several plane trips. Usually there is no problem, but on several, the attendant has asked for it to be turned off during take off and landing. I have loaded the POI - Three Letter Codes for US Airports from here, and use that for the destination. You must turn on the "off-road" option for tracking. Also, I recommend loading the Zipcode file here, and you can bring up that file, and it is neat where it will point to the different cities, and keep updating your distance to them.

My max speed reads 928 mph. I don't know how that happened, because I am quite sure we were not moving anywhere near that fast.

I used mine to see if it worked. It blew me away. It shows the speed 600 + mile per hour and the streets/towns below. The map moves so fast you really don't know where you are. The next time I'm going to pan way out to see if I can see the cities.I tried to program it for my landing area, but it went into a cycle of recalculating.

I will be flying to Dallas from Calgary with A/A. I see that you have been on A/A and they let you use your GPS?. Are they not on the no no list?. Did you have any trouble with customs with your GPS? I would like to take mine with me, but don't want any trouble with customs going into the US or coming back home.

ohwogo nuvi 750

I brought my Garmin 12XL on an AIr Transat flight, years ago, from Toronto to London Gatwick, and knew exactly where I was, all the time, but it was a bit of a pain to keep holding it up to the window

A FLight attendant asked me what I was doing, and when I said it was a GPS, she gave me a blank look. Not many people knew what it was back in the early to mid 90's.

On a flight to Spokane Washington form LAX I tried setting Spokane as my destination on my 760 and as stated earlier it kept recalculating. I then set the 760 to pedestrian mode, off road mode, and it solved the recalculating problem...
edit BTW I had a gps with me in Brazil and Europe, customs didn't care about it.... I was on Delta and the stewardess and stewart didn't blink an eye at my gps.... I did turn it off when requested to while landing and taking off...

&^%&*& - got seated inside from Hong Kong to London - had to rely of the airline system GRRRR! Would really liked to have know exactly where we did go - way north somewhere over Siberia!

The list posted is not 100% correct. I flew on AA a few weeks ago and used my garmin. No problem from FA and it worked fine. I did have to hold it up to the window. Great fastest speed record. I think is is 525MPH

Someone in an earlier post mentioned Southwest. In the back of their inflight magazine they specifically authorize the use of GPS devices during flight. I have used my Nuvi 360 several time without any problems. You need to be near a window to lock in the satellites but once the connection is made, the receiver can be placed on the service tray. It's a lot of fun an interesting to see where you are and how fast you're going.

I've used a GPS quite a few times in a plane. I use a Magellan eXplorist which is a handheld 'hiking' type GPS that has the ability to output NMEA data. I use a USB cable to plug the eXplorist into my laptop computer that runs Microsoft Streets and Trips. Streets and trips displays the speed, altitude, position etc as reported by the eXplorist.

I prop my GPS receiver by the window and hold it there with a pillow.. Then I put the laptop on the table tray in front of me so I can watch where I am on the 15 inch monitor.

Below is a laptop screen capture I made while I was on an Air Canada plane last February on my way home from Hawaii:

http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t329/jwt873/airplane-gps....

This is so cool! I can't wait to try it on my trip to Italy.

Anyone ever have any problems using the GPS as far as it not being allowed? I've never thought of doing this but it sounds really cool. Just nervous to try it...

Two airlines that I've flown that specifically do not allow GPS inflight are USAIR and American. Things might have changed, so always look at the inflight magazine to confirm.

And besides that, "it's far better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission" (Admiral Grace Hopper, USN, Ret).

Joe

As far as if being a danger, that has been discussed, and apparently not... Delta didn't seem to care on a recent flight I took... And some of the other passengers were quite interested in it, when my wife and I were discussing geo features...

On page one of this topic, Motorcycle Mama posted this link http://gpsinformation.net/airgps/airgps.htm

It's a compilation of GPS user's reports and other sources detailing which airlines allowed GPS and which didn't.

Of course, even if your airline is listed as GPS freindly, it would probably be wise to ask anyway.

I've been given permission by the flight staff of United Airlines and Air Canada.

Garmin's Vehicle Library now has several aircraft. On my last time-share trip to Nassau, the Garmin Jet sure looked better flying across the water than the sedan I had driving across the water last trip.

I enjoyed watching the screen but had to hold my nuvi 760 right next to the window to get a signal. Maximum speed 968 km/h - very nice!

Frontier didn't say a word. Although I didn't make a big deal about using it, I kind of kept the ant. hidden and if I noticed someone walking by I changed screens to look like I was doing something else.

Used my 250W on Aer Lingus. Their documentation actually say that GPS is allowed in flight but not in the takeoff and landing periods.

If only every seat was a window seat!

Now that is super cool.

Yes it shows the speed and works very well. I've been told to shut it once. Works best if you put it in off road mode otherwise it keeps recalculating the route.

I flew with a friend who owns a small plane. Brought along my garmin handheld. It worked great. It was able to do everything the planes onboard system was capible of. Only thing the garmin was not quite as user friendly.

I've used various GPS in commercial airliners for years with little to no issues. There were a few airlines like Airtran, I think it was who banned it. Otherwise, no issue and I do not ask permission. I just turn it on when they say it is OK to turn on electronics - at 10,000 feet.

I just got back last night from Chicago MDW to Baltimore BWI and had my Garmin 260W suctioned to the window. You have to remember to change the routing from street route to off-road. Speeds around 600 MPH are not uncommon eastbound with a good tailwind. An aviation GPS is much better because it will show you the altitude and a lot more data regarding ETA, etc but any GPS is fun.

Also remember to set the detail in lowest setting since yoiu will have to zoom out to about the 50 mile range or more. It is fun to see which states and cities you are over. Even my wife pretends like it is interesting.

I have used my 650 many times on my flights. Window seat with the GPS right up against the window or no go. Sometimes takes a while to lock on. Most airlines flip flop on the GPS use in flight. Check the mag after boarding. Most flight attendents say no when asked. My 650 zooms way out when it does lock on. Neat to see the towns, rivers, etc by name as they go by. My max speed is 647. I can only observe for a little while as my battery life in only about an hour when fully charged.

This made me laugh out loud! Good Idea!

I've been an A&P mechanic (Airframe & Powerplant, licensed aircraft mechanic, for those who don't know it) working for several airlines for around 20 years, and between my experience, and witnessing a test on a certain TV show which focuses on busting myths(wink-wink, nudge-nudge, know what I mean?), I think it's safe to say the electrical activity of a GPS will not cause the wings of an airpane to fall off. I've even been in the cockpit of an ailiner in which the captain used his portable GPS to compare to the aircraft navigation systems before GPS was the installed on many airliners. (There was about a 2 mile difference, at most. The nav system in the aircraft was most likely off more...But don't be scared, this was using the old Omega system on an extended over seas flight. Not nearly as accurate as local VOR.) So when a flight attendant has a knee-jerk reflexive negative attitude about using a GPS on the plane, While it's the right thing to do to listen to her(him,etc.), unless the airline has a specific rule about it's use, you might ask her to check with the captain about it. He (or she!) will probably think it's a cool idea.

Whatever you do, don't activate your red light camera and speed light camera alerts...it may make for a noisy flight!

I GOT A TOP MPH OF 610 ON MY NUVI 360 ON A JETBLUE TO NY. I DON'T RESET IT BECAUSE IT'S A CONVERSATION STARTER

For east bound flights, taking advantage of jet stream, it is possible to have ground speed that high.

And my Nuvi 660 on a Northwest Airlines flight from ORF to DTW showed max speed of 510 mph. On the return from DTW to Charlotte, the USAIR plane had a max of 501 mph. Couldn't get it to lock in from Charlotte to ORF.

I won't be able to use my gps on the airplane because I use Garmin's mobile xt (on my phone) and my phone doesn't let me use the gps in flight mode...

Check this site,
http://flightaware.com

It gives you real time flight info, as well as history data. You can trace aircraft positions over time for each flight you are interested in.

Very cool.

Only for North America.

yeah... only domestic flights. It does cover GA flights though.

Actually, it covers international flights, but only tracking while in North American airspace.

Have a look at:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/TSC230

My parents were on that flight, Toronto to Dublin, once it got close to Ireland, the tracking concluded.

I got a max speed of 540 mph going from dtw to phl on northwest. was awesome watching that thing during flight...

I used my Nuvi 650 recently on a flight. Here is a link to a screen shot of my max speed of 591 mph. It was kinda neat to see the map whizzing by on the screen. I also checked and GPS was on the approved list of electronic items that can be used on the airline I flew (United maybe?)
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/5339/gpswo5.jpg

I tried getting a signal in an airliner with my GO 930 recently without any luck.

I could not get signal lock on my GPS during my flight from CA to FL ?!

The metal body of the plane will block all the satellite signals.

I've used a few GPS units in a plane and I find that I have to have a window seat and I have to place the GPS unit right against the window for it to work.

Quite often you'll find you are only receiving four or five satellites, but that's enough for a position fix.

As with any electronics, please do not use your GPS on take off and landing (any time under 10,000 feet). While some people think this is not important, the less electronic interference the better. Why ask for problems, and, it is the law. I can not tell you how many maroons I sit next to with their iPod's on ignoring the announcements. One time a young lady actually asked her traveling companion if her iPod was an electronic device and then continued to listen to it.

Also, I suggest erasing that top speed, if a police officer ever pulls you over and sees that speed, you are going to get one heck of a ticket...

The American Airlines brochure/magazine that's in the seatback specifically lists GPS units as forbidden during the entire flight. Never stopped me from using it, of course. With a plane full of people fiddling with PDA's, iPODS, and smart phones, how would they ever know what you were doing, unless a person was stupid enough to leave voice prompts turned on.

In a window seat from Chicago to Minneapolis, I had signal all the way (and back again) with a Nuvi 350. With a Nuvi 760 and a window seat on a flight from Chicago to Atlanta, I lost signal before we got out of Illinois.

See http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=64350 for a world basemap. It is an old world basemap from 2003, but better than nothing. It is routable, but only on main highways. At least if you get lost it could find the nearest main road.

Change the downloaded filename from .exe to ".zip" and extract gmapbmap.img, then rename it "gmapsupp.img". Copy it to the Garmin folder of your nuvi or Garmin folder of an SD card (assuming you have not added any optional maps). Then if you go to Tools, Maps, Map Info, you can check/uncheck which map you want to use (your preinstalled map will override it unlesss unchecked). Worked fine on my 750.

Disclaimer: before doing anything unknown to your nuvi, you may want to back up all its folders/files to a directory on your hard drive.

If a policeman gives you a ticket for going 488mph in a car, then you have bigger issues to deal with! I actually got out of a ticket because my GPSr read 488 mph as the top speed.

He saw it and started laughing and told me to watch yellow lights next time.