On Dec 17, 1:06*pm, toad wrote:

But north up makes it much easier to use the pda as a MAP, which is
what I want if for. * Maybe at 300 knots in a Tornado, I might want
heading up, but not in a glider.


Todd - The question still comes down to this: When heading in a non-
north direction and your map is displaying north-up, don't you have to
do some mental gymnastics to figure out how the PDA map features (like
mountain peaks and lakes and towns) relate to what's in front of the
nose of the glider?

I'm very much in agreement with the "Track Up" crowd. I don't think
of it like a map in a car because for that I'm going to pull off to
the side of the road and _study_ it. When I'm flying I want to be
able to glance down, and then get my eyes back _outside_. Having the
map already showing me exactly what I expect to see out the front of
the canopy makes it easy.

But I think your comments really illuminate the deeper reason for the
big divide on this topic: There are people who use their GPS map like
a paper map - a la pre-flight planning; and then there are people who
use it differently - like as an "synthetic vision" or "alternative
projection" tool. They look at the moving map as a way to view their
current situation, but as if their eyeballs could view everything
around themselves for miles; or as if they could have an out-of-body
experience and see themselves from above. So as a result, this type
of person likes to have the map reflect the reality they see outside
at that moment; because they're trying to quickly and easily compare
and contrast the two "visions" in real-time. I think the "paper-map
user" views things in a very different way, but not being that type of
user I cannot comment more deeply on what their thought process is.

Take care,

--Noel
(Who doesn't think that one is inherently better than the other - just
that some people process things differently in their mind, and thus
can get greater use out of one or the other depending on how their
brain works)