Captain Vijay Lama is an experienced pilot and he seems to know what he is talking about. But I don't understand what he has against pilots using GPS receivers in the cockpit while negotiating monsoon clouds. Why is this a "worrying trend"? In fact global positioning increases the safety margin in IFR (instrument flying) at airports where there are minimal ground navaids. GPS has made flying safer in Nepal. It could be made even safer with Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning (EGPW) which gives pilots in the cockpit a three-dimension colour enhanced map of the terrain ahead and warns if the plane is too low. For reducing the danger of CFIT (Controlled Flight Into Terrain) in mountain flying in Nepal during the monsoon, EGPW is a near fail-safe equipment. But at $50,000 apiece can our domestic airlines afford it?

Name witheld on request,
Kathmandu