Originally Posted by Navajo31

Wow, that's a totally false and uninformed statement......While most GPS's are good enough to use for IFR, the FAA has never - and probably will never - approve a hanheld GPS for primary navigation under IFR. The reason is simple: the power source. The FAA just doesn't trust pilots to keep a fresh set of AA's on hand, and you can't launch into IFR without a reliable power source.

Eclipse was giving new owners Garmin portables because the installed system was not yet approved for anything. But to use a Garmin 496 as primary navigation once above 18,000 is illegal. Period.