I have a small Bluetooth GPS receiver (about the size of a match-box) which worked very well when connected (via BT) with my old Nokia N70 phone. I bought a program which connected (BT again) with the GPS and gave a read-out of various lat/long, height, speed, bearing, and so on. It also made a 'track' record of where you'd been (based upon your lat/long) and you could zoom in/out as required to see more detail.
I never got to try it in an airliner, and I think that the Bluetooth connection would have raised a few eyebrows.
I did try it in the USA a few years ago, on a sight-seeing flight in a Cessna 172. I asked the pilot about it before we flew, and he was all for it. As we flew around he kept asking what I could see on the phone display, to compare it with his instruments. There was a 'lag' of about 1-2 seconds if we were manouevering, but if we were straight-and-level it was remarkably stable.
And the Bluetooth never even interfered with the instruments!
Now, I have a smartphone, an HTC. You can get an App for it which uses the inbuilt GPS, it displays all the usual GPS values on-screen, so no need for a BT connection, just a reasonable view of the sky.
I also have an App that allows you to create a 'track' of your route; its intended for driving or walking, but you can switch-off the map display and it will still record your track. With the map display, if you were driving or walking it will download a new map (via the phone network) every now and then; you don't want that happening whilst flying, so switch-off the map display and record the route you've flown. It also works when the phone is in 'flight-mode', in case you were wondering.
Once you're home you can download the track data to a PC, fire-up Google Earth, and superimpose the track on the GE map to see where you've been.
Last edited by Geezers of Nazareth; 22nd Nov 2012 at 18:00.