Handheld GPS on Airliner?
I was recently on a long-haul B747-400 from Heathrow to Cape Town, and wanted to try out my new duty-free Garmin GPSIII Pilot.
Being a law-abiding citizen, before switching on in flight (the unit picked up half a skyful of satelites if held close to the window, while on the apron), I enquired if such a device was permitted. After some delay (and some confused interest from the stewards: "A GP-what?...") the message came back from the flightdeck that GPSs are not on the list of approved electronic devices! Being totally passive devices, with perhaps a certain amount of RF generated by internal power streams, I can only imagine that the real reason for its omission from the list is because they are not yet very wide-spread "consumer" devices. Anyone have any thoughts?
The crew were quite friendly though, and I got a visit to the flightdeck, which was really the original intention!
(edited for typo)
[This message has been edited by skyeye (edited 29 June 2001).]