Geocaching Australia

Freddo wrote:It is also great fun to waypoint features from 11000m and check what it really was on ozi when you get the laptop powered up.

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Time to try the laptop with the PCMCIA GPS

IÂ’ve used my GPS on my past 11 plane trips. On both Virgin trips the staff didnÂ’t care what it was but wanted it turned off. The other 9 trips were with Qantas and they ranged from not caring to asking all sorts of questions because they were after a GPS for city navigation.

Virgin + GPS = donÂ’t bother
Qantas + GPS = good to go!

Most of my flying was done via the Green Government Airline(C130H Hercules) and they didn't care as most of the crew had their own GPS units with them anyway, and usually turned on. However I have never bothered with taking my GPS into the cabin,onboard a civie flight. Why? Because I can't see the need really. All it is going to tell me is how fast we are going when we hit either a stone/aluminium cloud, and where we are going to die at or how many caches I am passing by that I can't get to at that particular moment. So much simpler to allow my GPS to ride in the cargo compartment with the 4kg bag of grass or the bag of white powdery substance that the baggage handlers have stashed in my backpack........

I found it interesting to take. Exactly what route does the plane take? One time coming into Melbourne we got held up by fog and circled for a while. It was interesting to see when we did the loop back we were within 50m of the track the first time. Pretty good flying in something the size of a 737.

I suppose having access to the air navigation maps for all those trips that I undertook spoilt me.... For me the real fun is always working out the track the aircraft is flying by using the good old MkI Mod 0 eyeball and my knowledge of the country without referencing the maps.

Wanting to know trivial facts and figures such as how high and how fast, is the drive that not only makes me take a GPS on board an aircraft, but it's what made me buy a GPS in the first place. Geocaching came much later. I have always thrilled to gadgets that confirm what you already know. In 1996, the Magellan 2000 didn't do much more than tell me how high and how fast, but I was one of the first in the country to own one. Before that, it was barometric/altitude watches and electronic weather stations just to see for myself how fast the wind was gusting. I can remember being one of the first in the country to own a LCD digitlal watch back in 1976.(Yes I'm that old) The brand was an Orient. Boy! wasn't that a fascination with people on the bus to work of a morning. I guess I'll always be a sucker for the opportunity to show off new and exciting tecnology.

I recently flew to and from Sarawak by Singapore Airlines and MAS and had GPSr, PDA,and digital camera in hand luggage (along with about 16 spare batteries) and had no trouble at all

I've tried this two times with my Garmin gps12 and have never been able to get a lock on any satellites. Come to think of it it didn't even register any sats. Whats the trick? Do you turn yours on before departure to get a lock or does it work while in the air?

where are we wrote:I've tried this two times with my Garmin gps12 and have never been able to get a lock on any satellites. Come to think of it it didn't even register any sats. Whats the trick? Do you turn yours on before departure to get a lock or does it work while in the air?

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Works fine, but you need to hold it next to the window. That's with the eTrex.

Window seat works for me. If you are more than 150mm from the window the sats drop out real quick.

When The 2 Dogs fly either Virgin or Qantas, Hounddog has the window seat. I love knowing what town we are over or just how long we have till we get there.