Why Not ?

[170C]

By golly George, or should I say "By George", that's a good idea. I might just get one of those pilot license. Then I could fly like an eagle (a green & white one)

[hilltop170]

It looks to me like if our portable GPS units were a real threat to air safety they would not be approved for use in our own planes while flying IFR but they can be used for reference. So I can't see why we shouldn't use them in the back of an airliner. They are DESIGNED to be used in airplanes. Do airliners have some top secret avionics we don't know about that is affected by a GPS receiver? I agree with no phones or transmitters of any kind. I sure don't want to have to listen to some J.A. bellowing on his cell phone the entire trip.

Years ago I was using my 95XL on a flight to Seattle and the stewardess came by and said for no particular reason other than she didn't know what a GPS was that I would have to turn it off. This was before the current restrictions and way before 9/11. I told her to go ask the captain if it was ok or not. She came back and said the captain wanted to know if he could play with it. So I still didn't get to use it anymore but when I got off the plane the captain was amazed. He had never used one before.

What I do now when flying is to pull the window shade down and put the flat antenna behind the shade. Then I can listen to XM radio, check the flight stats, check weather, etc. and nobody has ever said it is affecting anything.

[GAHorn]

...What I do now when flying is to pull the window shade down and put the flat antenna behind the shade. ....

With the shade down, do you log it as instrument time?

[hilltop170]

...What I do now when flying is to pull the window shade down and put the flat antenna behind the shade. ....

With the shade down, do you log it as instrument time?

Only when I'm PIC.....

[Curtis Brown]

Now that the Garmin 496 has come down another few bucks I have decided to get one. Who all has one now? And should I get the Lite aviation package or the full package from XM. Not sure what the differences are. I have called XM and asked for info about it but it has not come.

[jrenwick]

Curtis,

The XM weather options for aviation are at http://www.xmradio.com/weather/av_service_pricing.xmc. If you fly in Canada at all, you'll want the full bill. I used the Lite option until I made a trip through Canada this summer, and I'll probably switch back to it. Lite gives you the essentials you need in flight. The rest you can get on the ground during your preflight briefing.

There was some talk on the AOPA forums that the marine weather option gives you all the aviation stuff for less money. You could go there and see what you think.

Best Regards,

John

[Iceman07]

SWA's inflight magazine specifically permits the use of GPSs'.

Now there is a publication of authority if I ever saw one.

It may not be a "publication of authority", except if/when I switch on my 396 in the back of the cabin, I will show it to the flight attendent...