Airplane use

a passenger hand held GPS was not allowed on any aircraft due to terrorist threats?

For the fun of it.

I use my Nuvi 200 most of the time while I am flying on Southwest Airlines. You have to zoom out to get a stable map but it works just fine. The max speed I have seen is 620 mph on a trip from Burbank to Phoenix. I would suggest a window seat for better sat reception.

I used a setting so it would not follow the roads but give direct route. I sat next to a widow and every so often I held it next to glass to find the sats. It worked 99% of the time.
My max speed was 537 mph and the compass setting gave elevation of 17000 ft.
It was fun to use, and the stewards seemed ok with it.

My first handheld GPS was a Trimble. I was playing with it on a plane years ago, watching our speed, position, course etc when an air hostess came up and asked what it was. When I told her, she got excited and wanted to show it to the pilots. A hour later one of them emerged from the cockpit, grinning, thanked me for loaning the gps. He thought it was really cool and planned to buy one that week. Neither pilot had ever seen a gps so small (it was a Trimble Ensign...)

Haha @ the pilots loving the GPS!

The same thing happened to me about nine years ago when I used my eMap on a cruise ship. I was using it on deck one night and showing my wife where we were, how far from home, etc. Before I knew it, six or so other passengers had approached me to see that small GPS. Most of them had no idea about the technology.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=107

My Nuvi 775 can't get a lock on sat. signal even by window seat, flew from Lax to taipei. I wonder why. May be the plane cruised at a high elevation.

I had no problems getting a lock on sat. with my Nuvi 350.

The altitude of the plane shouldn't affect it, you would be closer to the sat.

How long have you left it on and by the window?

I use mine in the airplane all the time. Just zoom out and you can see just where you are located. If you zoom in too close the streets just zoom by.

I usually don't travel with a GPS when I fly, but I did on a recent trip that involved a rental car at the destination. It was pretty cool to see where we were in the air. It took a while to find the satellites, but was stable after it found them. I was disappointed that the fastest we went was 467mph. I also didn't realize that the flight plan between Chicago and Boston would be over Lake Erie for so much of the flight.

We only fly typically once a year on vacation and rarely on business. My wife insists on getting the window seat and gets all "you can't use that on an airplane!!" - You'd think I was smoking or something really bad. Maybe next time I'll book each of us window seats....

When I have flown on business and used it, other passengers have enjoyed it and I never got any flak from the attendants. I think my max altitude was around 34000 ft and max speed about 620mph. Unfortunately I had to do a master rest on it and lost those settings.

I think I tried downloading the track information but it did not transfer and I was unable to see my flight route on Mapsource.

I have a Nuvi 750 and if it's having a hard time getting satellite lock, holding it with the back of the unit facing up it locks faster. After it gets the lock, it can be held normally.

Bob.

No luck with the signal.

Now I can't wait to take a airplane trip. I used to fly all the time, but now not as often as it is not required for may current job.

Got 623 mph on Virgin America from LAX to JFK in July. The tailwind helped the groundspeed - a lot!

I used to fly a lot, but not lately. Always wanted to know what was below. So when I flew last month, I carried my Garmin GPS. I was great - could finally follow where we were in the air. Some things I found out.

1. My Garmin will not show cities name on the main map - so select the route map. You do this by touching the display bar at the top or on my 755 also by touching the pointer icon and then select map. Now you see city names - except you now have to move the screen with you finger as the plane flys.
2. I was still in car mode as we approached the 1st landing and my GPS went nuts - trying to follow roads. Once I put it in Pedestrian mode things were better.
3. I used the GPS in the rental car and the trip from the hotel to the site was short. So the GPS never fully recharged. I had to recharge the GPS thru the USB and my laptop and that is slow and not enough. So be sure and fully charge your GPS before you leave.

But I had a blast following my route.

1. Since the basic GPS unit is a passive receiver, there shouldn't be a problem using it.
2. I used one on a flight from DC to SF - had to zoom way out to keep it from constantly refreshing the screen (but it was fun watching my truck icon speed down roads when the GPS was zoomed in). It was interesting to note the route we flew and how we flew along interstate highways much ot the route. It was also interesting to see my saved landmarks pop up as we flew nearby.
3. Limited battery life of my 755t forced me to turn it on for short periods of time and then turn it off, but I was able to capture the route fairly well.

I've used a 760 on a couple of transatlantic trips and it's worked fine, I have a couple of nice tracks over Greenland and the north Atlantic. I checked it against the on board position/speed/altitude indicator and it was pretty much identical to the aircraft's information. Plus I now have the fastest top speed on the block!

I've used mine, and it documents the speed 600+ MPH in the max speed / trip log. Pretty cool.

I went one step farther and, for fun and giggles, took a video of my 765t on a flight last month from GSO to MSP. We were flying over Lake Ontario after plane change in EWR. The video is nothing to awe about, but it does show that it works from a plane. The plane was a Embraer ERJ 145, hence the not so fast speeds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrG5KV7fzZE

Doing 480 MPH at 31000 feet over a lake!

I did this with an old etrex some years back flying from London to Singapore. It was neat fun.

It's fun looking at how fast the plane is going for a while but mine kept losing lock on the satellites. Once you're over water, there's no map to reference it to. It will estimate your time of arrival though.

Hi - thought I'd update with the info that United, which never used to allow GPS, now does.

Just last month (this being 2011) I used mine from Las Vegas to Denver, then connecting to DC - it was a blast.

I had the 3490's map zoomed out to 20 miles, which was a nice speed. Of course, I disabled any alerts, etc.

But it locked on fast, and never lost sat signal. In my seat, I get full satellite bars on my 3490. Window seat, but the unit sits on the tray table - I don't have to prop it against the window.

Next week I'll do a DC - LA flight. Just for fun I'll bring my older unit - the eTrex Legend CX. Curious as to whether its less-sensitive receiver will work.

A couple of notes -

The Garmin garage has a jet icon - very appropriate!

I use an Trent iCruiser, which is a portable USB power supply. I bought it in case I needed juice for my other gear, but now I use it for the 3490, in the air. Works great, and would last about 24 hours, I would guess. Also lets you crank up the brightness all the way, since your battery won't drain as fast.

Finally, one of the original posts here said the crew could always ask you to turn off a GPS or anything else. True. But in the 4 years since this thread started, the whole world has bought smartphones - and everybody uses them in-flight. Considering the relatively similar size and shape of GPS units today, and the similar ergonomics when holding and using them, it would be one amazingly perceptive crew member - who could be walking down the aisle, and in an instant, tell whether the device was a smartphone or GPS.

I'm not saying you should fool them, rather, I just don't think it would draw anyone's attention these days.

Ya think?

They do notice though and will insist you turn your phones/GPS off even if they're in flight mode.

Well, I'm hoping that United's new policy will be enough to let the crew relax. GPS is now on the official list of approved devices in the back of 'Hemisphere Magazine,' United Airlines' in-flight publication.

So, while the crew can override that - I don't think they will.

As I mentioned, I did a Las Vegas to Denver, and Denver to DC trip a week ago on United, with my GPS fired up the whole time except for takeoff and landing, and the crew couldn't have cared less.

This is awesome! I never even thought about trying that.

thats awesome

they keep changing their minds about allowing gps on board

I fly a` lot on Jet Blue, and I asked one pilot if I could use mine. He said as long as they don't send out a signal, he had no problem with it.
As I was leaving the plane he asked me how it worked. I showed him the screen, he was amazed how accurate it was.
The only differece with the Mapquest screen on the plane was the altitude. The GPS was lower by about 7ft. that was due to placement of the receiver.

I have a 760 and recently used it on a Southwest flight. It worked great and I decided to download the tracklog to Mapsource. Imagine my surprise when it did not show up, yet the track from driving around my destination did. I used the Nuvi after I returned home and that track along with my destination track will download. All the tracks show up on the Nuvi but the the track from the flight will not download. I have also tried downloading to BaseCamp and Google Earth with no luck.

Anyone have any ideas??

Maybe your track log has an altitude reading and you might have to zoom out to get above the track???

(started a new thread here under open discussion)

thats a nice pilot .