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Flying with gpsr?


jak324

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Has anyone taken their gpsr on a plane and turned it on while flying? I think it would be cool to see where you are at and how fast you are going. Just wondered if anyone has had any problems. Thanks.

 

Josh

 

P.S. I tried searching to make sure this hasn't been covered but didn't find anything. Sorry if it has.

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hey I was wondering when you use your GPSr during the flight....how does it show on the screen? I mean, on the road, you get to see the road details and street....but on the air, how does it show up? just a straight line or something? anyone got a track picture of their flight? can someone show us a screen of what its like?

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Most airlines allow you to use GPS receivers when you are above 10,000 feet (after they give the "Okay to use portable electronic devices" announcement). A few do not, so check with your carrier. You have to have a window seat or an external antenna held at the window to get reception (althouhg SiRFIII units may work).

 

I generally load City Select maps of my starting and ending cities, but Topo maps in between, so I can identify towns, rivers, peaks, etc. I find that being zoomed out to 12 miles on my Garmin 60C gives a pretty good match to the ground at 30,000 feet.

 

The GPS will chart your track as a straight line, and give you very accurate ground speed. Altitude is also good in units without an altimeter (sensor units measure altitude based upon air pressure, and the pressurized cabin throws them off).

 

Other passengers (and the flight attendants) seem to be facinated that you can plot your position in real time. I've introduced a few folks to caching while on trips.

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I don't quite think it's what you had in mind, but the main reason I have my GPS is to take on Aircraft. Unfortunately I don't fly much anymore do to the rising costs, but having it on board was great.

 

I could look up airport info, monitor airspace, and even line up for approach miles out. I used it all the time to find friends houses. I liked seeing my speed hover around 100, that was nice, a Cessna 150 is not really a speedy craft though.

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As Sputnik mentioned, the rules vary by airline. A fairly current list of airlines which do and don't allow GPS use is given at:

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

Most airlines do permit use when at cruising altitudes which is the same policy as with other electronics such as laptops and PDAs. But some, notably American Airlines, prohibit use of passenger GPS receivers at all times. US Air has also recently changed their rules to be more restrictive. Quite a few airlines have switched back and forth on their policies in the past.

 

I used my eMap on some Northwest Air flights last week and found it to be very useful for identifying specific geographic features and towns that we flew over. It is important to get a window seat. I've found that getting a lock is much easier if the unit's antenna is held right up to the window but that usually the lock will be retained when it's placed on the edge of the drop-down tray near the window.

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[/url]shubieriverrx0.jpg[/img]

 

I have used it a couple of times on Commercial flights. I always take it with me when out pleasure flying around the Canadian Maritime Provinces. I record each flight and as soon as I get home download the track into the pc to take a look....(fanatic you say??). I use Ozi Explorer on my pc and can see my track on the maps. Ozi also lets you analyze various aspects of the track speed, distance, etc. It's also cool to go back and review the flight during the winter when my bird is tucked away in the hanger for the winter.

I was out watching Tidal Bore Rafters on the weekend you can see on the pic clearly.

 

 

Thanks to AirMapper for the help posting the pic!!!! B)

Edited by Sarjor
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i took my garmin 60 csx on a plane it was a small plane 50 pasenger duel prop plane it work.my max speed was 480 km. i reset my elivation so i cant give you that but i found that in the first plane the elivation didnt read properly do to the pressure in the plane but it work fine on the way back. 2 plane was older

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As Sputnik mentioned, the rules vary by airline. A fairly current list of airlines which do and don't allow GPS use is given at:

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

Most airlines do permit use when at cruising altitudes which is the same policy as with other electronics such as laptops and PDAs. But some, notably American Airlines, prohibit use of passenger GPS receivers at all times. US Air has also recently changed their rules to be more restrictive. Quite a few airlines have switched back and forth on their policies in the past.

 

I used my eMap on some Northwest Air flights last week and found it to be very useful for identifying specific geographic features and towns that we flew over. It is important to get a window seat. I've found that getting a lock is much easier if the unit's antenna is held right up to the window but that usually the lock will be retained when it's placed on the edge of the drop-down tray near the window.

whoops ihad mine out on a airtran flight the atendant didnt day anything though :)

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Add Qantas to the list of those that won't! I asked on the way to Australia and again on the way back and the answer was no both ways. :unsure: Being that this was my first time crossing both the international date line and the equator, I wanted to see when I actually crossed! The cabin attendant on the flight back had called the pilots to ask if I could use it, "NO" came back as an answer, but he was really interested in it, asked what I used it for, so I told him about caching, National Map Corps and how I use it at work. He seemed really interested; asked about geocaching.com and if the units were available in Oz, so maybe we have a "plant" at Qantas! :unsure:

Tom

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e6f607a4-2574-4433-be9e-27ed30d29455.jpg

 

Here is my AirMap mounted to the control Yoke. (I had a cheap camera at the time.)

 

I put it under the dash (Per CFI's request) on a cross country trip, and I looked at my track, and there were lots of little wobbles in the route between destinations. Later on my Solo flights I had almost perfect tracks between airports using the GPS.

 

Cool photo Sarjor, I remember the circles and loops looked like that when I would sight see over my home.

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We're back from our trip. On the way out from Minn./St. Paul to Salt Lake City, we were going 502 mph. On the way back on the same leg of the trip we were going 650 in a CRJ 700. On Delta between the twin cities and salt lake, a guy about 10 rows in front of me had a gps and asked if he could use it. The stewardess took the manual to the cockpit and the answer was yes you can use it as along as you don't have an external attena. I did find that the unit had to be right next to the window to lock on any satalites.

 

Josh

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I flew to Denver from Seattle a year ago last May and my GPSr worked great on the flight home. I had loaded all of the maps in between and could see when we crossed into Oregon and over the Tri-Cities & Yakima. I had five or six satellites in the northern sky and my 60CS took a while to lock in (like several minutes) but once it did it followed the rest of the flight home. Groundspeed was around 560 MPH I think. I didn't ask permission, I figure its easier to ask for forgiveness but I made sure to turn it off when computers, cell phones, and all other devices that affect avionics have to be off.

 

I didn't use it for the flight to Denver because I was on a United 777. They already have GPS and maps of the route on each TV monitor in the headrest of the seat in front of you showing your progress in flight. You can switch from that to movies, entertainment, and other information channels then back again.

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