Vertical Card Compasses vs GPS Compass Display

How well do the vertical card compasses work and hold up in real world
conditions ( constantly circling, sticking etc) ?

Some of the GPS's have a compass display. Is that a viable alternative
to a vertical card compass (still having regular old style compass as
backup) ?

I would welcome replies from those with experience with either or
both.

Stan

wrote:

How well do the vertical card compasses work and hold up in real world
conditions ( constantly circling, sticking etc) ?

Some of the GPS's have a compass display. Is that a viable alternative
to a vertical card compass (still having regular old style compass as
backup) ?

I would welcome replies from those with experience with either or
both.

Stan

Unless the GPS has a magnetic compass sensor, its compass display
gives you direction in which you are moving on the ground, not your
heading. This may or may not be desirable depending on what you want
to do with the information. If you want to get to destination based on
magnetic direction it is fine. If you want to compute winds it is
totally wrong. Converse is true if GPS has magnetic sensor and gives
you it's information. The only problem there is that so far I have not
seen one like that that I would trust.

Cheers,
Henryk Birecki

My vertical card compass is terrible, it sticks alot, then spins out.
And it is mounted up on top of my glare hood obstructing vision.

I frankly don't see the need for a compass much in a glider. I keep
orientated using landmarks like mountains (ridges are great),
rivers,lakes highways etc.

The gps is also good for direction in straight flight, but I just use
a digital display, not a compass card display.

Todd Smith
3S

"toad" wrote in message
oups.com...
My vertical card compass is terrible, it sticks alot, then spins out.
And it is mounted up on top of my glare hood obstructing vision.


This can be fixed. The rotating card is made of cardboard which warps and
rubs on the instrument glass. I removed the glass and straightened the
cardboard so the compass spins easily.

I frankly don't see the need for a compass much in a glider. I keep
orientated using landmarks like mountains (ridges are great),
rivers,lakes highways etc.

The gps is also good for direction in straight flight, but I just use
a digital display, not a compass card display.

Todd Smith
3S


Me too. Thats why my vertical card compass is on a shelf and not in the
glider.

BD

wrote:

Some of the GPS's have a compass display. Is that a viable alternative
to a vertical card compass (still having regular old style compass as
backup) ?

That works for me. I have a Garmin GPS II+ and the bearing page is my
preferred directional display when I'm flying. My compass is tucked away
at the bottom of the panel for emergency use only.

As it sounds like you haven't seen a GPS II+, here's a description. The
bearing page shows a circular disk containing a large arrow that points
at the selected waypoint. Round it is a ring showing the main compass
points. Like a compass card, the ring rotates so heading is always at
the top of the display. For good measure the heading and waypoint
bearing are also shown as three digit numbers.

Some other basic handheld Garmins (12XL, GPS III+, eTrex, GPSMAP 60 and
76) also have this display page.

You may still be able to find the older models (GPS II+, III+, 12XL) on
eBay. Of the current basic handhelds, the GPSMAP series look the best
suited for our use because all controls are on the front next to the
display. The Geko series are too small to be practical while the eTrex
series have their controls on the edges which probably makes a panel
mounted one harder to use.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On Sep 20, 1:19 pm, wrote:
How well do the vertical card compasses work and hold up in real world
conditions ( constantly circling, sticking etc) ?

Some of the GPS's have a compass display. Is that a viable alternative
to a vertical card compass (still having regular old style compass as
backup) ?

I would welcome replies from those with experience with either or
both.

Stan

Thanks for your input. As always, your insights are very valuable.
Stan