A family member of mine wants to have Google Earth available on a very compact PC/PDA for when he goes on trips to very remote areas. He will not have internet access when he's there. Is this possible?

No.

Google Earth needs to contact the Google Earth servers to display anything
Without the Internet plugged in, nothing will show.

You can confirm this by disconnecting the Internet from your computer, and try running Google Earth

Thanks for the info. Anyone else have a "creative" solution?

i have. use the GPS-navigation. tons of software, and hardware available now for this.

But can the GPS navigation provide the graphic capabilities, such as panning, terrain, 3D, zoom, etc. that GE does?

An example: http://www.groundcontrol.com/BGAN-mobile-internet.htm

dgower2, yes. various software - various possibilities. you want to identify your location, right? so use GPS-navigation.