In article ,
Thomas Borchert wrote:
Terrain on a (handheld) GPS looks really cool and makes it easier to
correlate the moving map picture and reality outside the window, but
IMHO you just can't use it to avoid terrain by only a few hundred feet
as necessary during scud running. For all other situations, I don't
really see what it is needed for: VFR you just look outside at the
terrain, IFR you should be high enough to not hit the terrain anyway -
and the map without terrain should give you enough situational
awareness to avoid being where you shouldn't be. That said, terrain is
nice to have and adds to SA - but not critical.


IFR during the approach to an airport with surrounding terrain seems
like a pretty good use of terrain avoidance. VFR during the approach to
an airport in the summer when the visibility may be reduced in haze
seems like a pretty good use of terrain avoidance.

This nonsense that I've been reading here and on other message boards
suggesting that a situational awareness tool is useless or almost
useless because it isn't "certified" is sheer lunacy, in my opinion. I
think it was the AOPA boards where some folks said they would trust an
ADF over a portable GPS because the ADF was "certified."

No, you shouldn't rely on it to scud run, and you shouldn't be doing
approaches with a non-certified GPS, but it is tremendously useful for
situational awareness--which includes awareness of obstacles and
surrounding terrain.


JKG