But today my SkymapIIIc has airways. They are pink on the display. You
just put your white course line on the pink airway line and you're
flying down the middle of the airway. No need to figure out what VORs
or intersections are on the airway when ATC puts you on an airway.
Often, near SoCal they don't even name intersections. You'll get
instructions from approach like, "Victor 123 to Victor 234 to Victor
345, etc, etc". I've gotten as many as 5 victor airways in my
clearance as I approached SoCal, none of which included intersections
in the clearance. The SkymapIIIC sure made it easier. However, I just
bought the 296 because of the turn coordinator functionality (for
emergency partial panels no electrical and no vac) and for the battery
life after loss of power.

-Robert


"Bob Gardner" wrote in message ...
An article (actually, a sidebar to an article) in the July IFR magazine says
"According to AIM 1-1-20 (f)(7), by omission, you can't just input the VOR
as the active waypoint....," and "...according to this passage, the FAA
allows GPS to substitute for everything except for a VOR. For some reason,
the FAA has faith in its VORs and won't let you substitute GPS for them as a
primary means of navigation."

Maybe this is why Garmin does not include VOR-based airways.

Bob Gardner

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
om...
For years I've turned by back on Garmin GPSs because they did not
provide terrain. Now it looks like the Garmin 296 provides that. I'm
considering selling my Skymap IIIc (which has terrain) and buying the
Garmin. The IIIc certainly has a bigger screen but the Garmin has the
partial panel turn coordinator and IAF vectors for approaches.
However, I was really, really surprised to see that Garmin is missing
Victor airways. I can't tell you how useful that has been while being
rapid fire assigned airways near L.A. or anywhere. Being able to just
put the course line on the airway line made flying airways simple.
Garmin says they don't have plans to fix this. Too bad, having airways
really would make it a better unit (and prevent frequent grabs for the
enroute chart). Its also great for VFR pilots who want to practice
steep turns and stalls but want to ensure they are the minimum 4 miles
from an airway.

-Robert