I should qualify the VFR comment, I am thinking as a PPL instructor not of the audience who might hold IMC/IR. In the UK a PPL holder is not allowed to fly VMC on top without holding an IMC or IR, because with a simple PPL you must navigate by ground reference.
Call the CAA yourselves. They are the authority; I will believe them rather than an anonymous contributor on the internet. I also was asked to proof read the CAA's draft GPS regulations and recommendations which are coming into force, by someone who was himself asked by the CAA, who was the one who originally told me this was with a view to being approved for sole navigation, hence the later check with the CAA to see whether they had come into force. They were not very realistic, rather too pessimistic and inaccurate.
The reason that you can't use it is that it is not yet approved as a sole means of navigation by the CAA - although it might be next month that the change was coming. Perhaps that is why it is not specifically mentioned in the ANO, I don't need to know that and so don't. I am a PPL instructor with no GPS so do not need to concern myself with this; when I am a commercial pilot I shall follow company procedures taught in line training which are CAA approved. I am not a lawyer, so see my time better spent learning flying skills for safety rather than for learning the law beyond my job. If it is not covered by my Flying Order Book or company procedures (or MEL in this case) then it should not come up, but if it does then I will err on the side of caution until I can check.
P.S. With apologies for having been the one to have inadvertantly diverted the thread, I see nothing to defend use of GPS for separation. It is not suitable for that purpose!
Last edited by Send Clowns; 5th October 2005 at 14:57.