"Dane Spearing" wrote in message
...

sigh I guess I don't understand why someone would want to intentionally
operate outside of those guidelines set out in the AIM (barring an
emergency
or other detriment to flight safety).


Because direct flight is quicker than following the airways and handheld GPS
is cheaper to purchase.



You are correct...there is no "regulation" (i.e. - rule in the FARs) that
state you can not use a hand-held GPS for IFR navigation. However, the
non-regulatory AIM makes it very clear. As I mentioned in a previous
post,
there's also nothing in the FARs about requiring you to read back a hold
short instruction....just the AIM.


Does reading back a hold short instruction need to be in the FARs? ATC is
required to get the readback. If you don't read back the hold short ATC is
going to instruct you to do something other than what you want to do until
you do read it back and there is something in the FARs about adhering to ATC
instructions.



I'm certainly no legal expert (nor would I ever want to be), so I can't
make a professional interpretation as to the regulatory or legal status
of things like the AIM, Advisory Circulars, etc... However, it seems
reckless and irresponsible to operate outside of those guidelines.


What's to interpret? The AIM itself says it's not regulatory and the
Advisory Circular Checklist says that unless incorporated into a regulation
by reference the contents of an advisory circular are not binding on the
public.



You are also correct in that there is nothing that says that use of
a handheld for IFR operations is unsafe. However, more importantly,
there's nothing to indicate that it *is* safe!


The absence of any danger or harm from it's use indicates it is safe.



It's more a matter of faith to assume that the hand-held *is* safe and
will do what it's supposed to do than to assume it is illegal and/or
unsafe.


We don't assume it's safe, we know it's safe because even a complete failure
of a handheld GPS during IFR enroute flight in US controlled airspace
presents no danger.