In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:

Just picked up my aircraft with the GNS430W upgrade and was reading the
manual to see what new features are now included. In there I discovered the
feature that allows the pilot to purposely fly a parallel offset course
anywhere from 1 to 99 miles. The only tedious characteristic of this feature
(IMO) is that the pilot must set this option every time a flight plan is
activated, rather than having the option "stick" across flights. Thus, over
time it seems to me a pilot may eventually opt to not set it.

Anyone use this feature? I am curious about its popularity.

It's mostly used by people flying SAR missions. You keep increasing the
offset and end up flying a box pattern.

I once used it to find a visual reporting point. I was coming back to HPN
from the north at night and ATC said "direct to the Tappan Zee Bridge". I
don't have the bridge as a waypoint, and I didn't have it in sight. But I
do know it's about 5 miles west of the airport, so I just threw in a 5 mile
offset and got the box tracking to a point roughly where the bridge is.