Originally Posted by
bubi352
Because your company flies a jet with a Garmin 496, you think it is legal? It's not legal for IFR. Where did you get this idea? WAAS capable doesn't make it IFR approved. There are currently no handheld gps legal for IFR operations. No handheld gps meet TSO standards. They all need an approved installation. Sticking your gps on a windshield won't do it. It is only approved for situational awareness.
What is it about GPS? So many people will start chiming in with what they think is right, and they usually never are.
Any GPS is legal for IFR. You don't need any TSO standards. You don't need an approved installation. I can use any off the shelf GPS I want and file direct to anywhere I want using it. What rule says I can't?
What they aren't able to be used for is GPS approaches. Anyway, my point is that probably (I don't know this for a fact, I've never been in one) they were in the Eclipse for the weather uplink. The Eclipse certainly has an IFR GPS onboard with the Garmin 400, right?