"Tony" wrote in message
ps.com...
How are you going to determine bank with a GPS?

On Feb 4, 5:24 pm, "Danny Deger" wrote:
I am thinking about buying a 1946 Taylorcraft that has NO gyros at all on
the panel. I really want at least a turn and bank so I want die if I
loose
reference to the horizon for any reason. I have been told that the
heading
information from a GPS is good enough to do the function of a turn and
bank
and allow emergency operations without having a visual horizon reference.
Is this correct?

Danny Deger


Actually there are specialized GPS units that can determine attitude and
they have been around for at least 10-12 years. Google the "Trimble TANS
Vector" and you will see one of the earlier units.
http://trl.trimble.com/docushare/dsw...20997-00-C.pdf
They operate by using at least 3 antennae (usually four antennae) and
directly determine roll, pitch and yaw using carrier phase differences from
the GPS satellites. Of course this is not the way the portable units derive
the HSI info.

The carrier phase units are commonly used as either primary or secondary
IMUs (with some other 3 axis gyro like a laser gyro) in high-end UAVs or
other military type hardware.

Regards,
John Severyn