Mike,

Glad you got your 196 to work. I had made a quick post in response to your
posting as I was walking out the door for a trip, but I do not see it. It
might be a problem with my reader, but who knows.

I've got some more information on using GPS on my website at
www.cockpitgps.com. Many of the examples use the 196.

The book is a free download. Voluntary payments are accepted, but my
minimum payment is that you sign my guestbook or drop me a note if you find
the info interesting. My purpose in writing this is not to spam you with my
site though.

My book has screen shots, but here are some of the main points of using the
GPS:

One of the keys to exploiting the GPS is that it gives you a value for the
direction of your path over the ground, TRACK. If you compare your TRACK to
the direction that you need to go, BEARING, and make heading corrections
based on this you will go directly to the waypoint regardless of the wind.

On the Garmin 196, I suggest you use the map display as the primary
interface. The map provides situational awareness and the data fields
provide precision. If you set a data field to TURN (BEARING - TRACK) this
will tell you how much to adjust your heading to go directly to the
waypoint. I like TURN, XTK, DISTANCE, and NEXT WPT as the primary fields.
On the 196, the XTK direction is the direction the aircraft is relative to
the course. This is the opposite of most needles which tell you which
direction that you need to go.

If you go with the HSI display with the map instead of the data fields: go
to the HSI page, press MENU - SET BUG INDICATOR -BEARING. By the way this
will also work on the 295, probably the 195, but not the GPS III Pilot.

Most handheld GPS receivers have TURN, but some may require that you display
BEARING and TRACK seperately. Adjusting your heading so that TURN equals
zero is the same as BEARING and TRACK matching. Some GPS receivers do not
have a direction to the XTK or OFF COURSE field. In this case, just use
whether this field is increasing or decreasing to let you know if you are
correcting towards the leg or drifting away from it.

A note for those with a panel mount such as a Garmin 430, you can display
TURN and BEARING, but there is a data field, TKE which is the difference
between TRACK and DTK. This allows you to combine which direction you need
to go and TRACK into one data field. This gets you parallel to the leg
rather than directly to the next waypoint. TKE can also be used to take the
guesswork out of finding a heading to fly. The problem with TKE is that it
will show you on course beyond the last waypoint. Thus, it must be used in
conjunction with DISTANCE and XTE to be useful.

Whether you use compare TRACK directly with BEARING or DTK (COURSE on some
GPS receivers), or use TKE or TURN, depends on which data fields your GPS
offers, how many fields can be displayed on a screen, and how you can
customize the screen you choose to use as a primary interface.

If you are flying VFR learn to edit the routes using the map. In my book, I
create a route from KDED to KOCF. This goes directly across a bombing
range. From with this route, select MENU - Edit on Map. Move the cursor
over the route until it becomes a dotted line. Press ENTER and drag the
route to landmarks such as roads, lakes, towns, etc. When you have the
route line where you want, press ENTER again. You can now use the GPS and
landmarks as a backup. I call this "GPS Pilotage."

This technique of editing the route on the map works with most Garmin
mapping receivers whether aviation or not. I do not beleive it will work
with the panel mounted receivers. There is a slight implemenation variation
on some of the Garmin receivers in that when you first press ENTER to add a
point, it will bring you to a screen to create a waypoint. After you create
the point, you must then move the cursor over the point and press ENTER
again to add it to the route. The Lowrance receivers have a slight
variation that allows you to add map points to a route.

Lastly, beware that the first point navigated to in a route is the second
point. If you have a route from a to b to c to d and execute the route, the
GPS will start by navigating to b. This is because it uses a to anchor the
first leg of the route from a to b.

Let me know how the learning curve goes,


John Bell
www.cockpitgps.com