In article , Marc Ramsey
wrote:

....
But, you know what? I think the IGC *should* allow use COTS GPS units
for badges with some restrictions. The problem that you (and others who
have proposed this) are up against is that it will take a good deal of
work to convince those who really matter. Frankly, the proposals I've
seen so far have been rather poorly argued and incomplete. I don't
think anyone has yet bothered to do the homework necessary to come up
with a proposal that might be taken seriously.

Oh yes, there is a GREAT deal of homework being done!

The drafters of the Canadian COTS proposal to the last IGC meeting and the
Canadian IGC delgate have been in constant contact recently with Garmin
and the IGC GFAC committee to resolve technical/rules mismatches. It
appears that these are being sorted out for a popular Garmin unit now that
the engineers and the GFAC committee learned to speak each other's
language. :-)

There is reason to be optomistic that a COTS GPS unit will be approved
within a bureaucratically short period of time.

--
Tony Burton