Vacation Experiences & Research: Using a GPS unit to track your flight

If you have a GPS unit, it is really cool to track your flight and then view it in Google Earth. Why would anyone want to use a GPS unit on a plane? Personally, I often find it very frustrating to be flying over such scenic locations and not have a clue about what mountains, lakes, deserts, towns, and the like, I'm seeing out my window.

I was a little concerned about what an airline might think of me using a GPS on a plane. Would they consider it a security risk? Would they kick me off the flight if they found out? On a 2008 business trip from San Jose, California I decided to give it a go and see what happened. Immediately after being boarded on the flight, I checked all the literature in the seat pocket in front of me to see if there were any rules for using such a device during a flight. On this particular airline there was no mention of a GPS unit being an approved or prohibited device. I justified it by telling myself the device is only receiving a signal that is always being broadcast everywhere 24/7 anyway, regardless if mine is turned on or not. (Note: On later flights with other airlines, I found GPS units were mentioned as an approved device, but only after reaching an altitude of 10,000 feet.)

The ForeRunner 305 is basically an oversized wrist watch with GPS capabilities. Having the appearence of a watch helped make it inconspcious, which was a good thing since I really didn't know if what I was doing was frowned upon. Make no mistake, in order to track the satellites, the unit must be kept by the window. So, if you don't have a window seat, don't waste your time because it won't work. The "wrist watch" design made it easy and comfortable to keep the device facing the window.

Sitting on the runway, I turned the unit on and in about 35 seconds it locked in on the satellite. I was ready for take-off. With the cabin doors closed, the planed taxied away from the gate and proceeded to the main runway. In no time at all the plane was airborne and the GPS was reporting some amazing speeds!

Normally I use this device for tracking my walks, hikes and one in a blue moon....a jog. Being the first time I'd used it on a plane, I had to rethink my whole concept of pace when I saw it report a mile passing by every 7 seconds!
As it turns out the Forerunner 305 actually has a setting just for using it in a plane.

As it turns out using a GPS unit to track your flight and then viewing that in Google Earth is awesome! Here are some photos and samples:

This first image shows the take-off from San Jose, CA. The red line is what imported into Google Earth, then I added the green arrows to show the loop path we took before actually heading away, Eastward from the city.

Here in the second image we the red line which represents my flight path and its proximity to Mono Lake, California.

With using my GPS unit, there is no way I would have known I was looking out my window at Canyonlands National Park. Upheaval Dome was really cool looking from the air!

In this image, as with all the images, the red line represents my flight path. This image show the entire flight path from San Jose, California to Atlanta, Georgia.