[time-nuts] GPS from a window seat

Thomas A. Frank ka2cdk at cox.net
Sat Oct 3 07:31:08 UTC 2009


>  saying angrily "using a GPS on a
> plane is illegal".


Nonsense...unless their own rules prohibit such use, in which case  
you are legally obliged to comply.  There is no blanket (ie:  
government) rule against them.

It is up to the airline; in the past year I've flown a number of  
different airlines.  Some said in their in-flight magazine that GPS  
use was allowed, others said it wasn't, and some didn't say anything  
at all.

For example, Southwest airlines specifically allows the use of GPS  
units:

http://www.spiritmag.com/flightservices/flight-services.pdf

US Airways implies they're OK, but is not explicit:

http://www.usairwaysmag.com/inflight_information/passenger_information/

Either Jetblue or United prohibit GPS', but I cannot find anything on  
their websites (they are the other two airlines I've recently flown,  
so it's one of them where I saw the prohibition).

No rhyme or reason to it at all.

Tom Frank, KA2CDK
(frequent flyer...and gadget user)






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