Palmtop alternatives to Garmin 196

If you are looking at the PDA / GPS solution I would recommend taking a
look at pocketfms ( www.pocietfms.com )before you pay for a commercial
moving map solution. It does everything you can think of, and it is free.
It will even download the wind info and calculate your flight plan for you.
Very nice tool. For those that don't have PDA, the program installs on your
PC and then downloads the info to the PDA so you can also use it for flight
planning on your PC.

Very nice program.


"John T" wrote in message
ws.com...
"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message


So one can use one of many different GPSs? How long does the iPAQ's
battery run both the GPS and the iPAQ? One of the major niches for
what I'm looking to purchase is a backup. This would include, of
course, electrical failure. So battery operation is important.

Yes, the AWM solution is compatible with a range of GPS receivers. As
others mentioned, ControlVision offers a remote GPS solution with its own
batteries. This configuration should offer several hours of operation on
a
set of fully charged batteries.

FWIW, my Sentinel setup running on just the iPAQ internal battery (I have
an
external power pack I can use) gives me well over 2 hours of continuous
use.

However, what I like about the iPAQ type solutions is the range of
backup available. It looks expensive, but there's even a backup
"gyro" available for the thing. That, plus the weather, plus the nav
backup...very tempting.

soapbox enabled=true
The thing about backups of any kind is that they have to be ready for
immediate use at the time they're needed. For instance, having a handheld
transceiver is a great backup idea for when you lose all electrical
power -
unless the handheld is in your flight bag packed away in the baggage area.

Similarly, for the solid-state AI and handheld GPS to be useful as
backups,
they have to be handy at the time they're needed. Imagine flying at night
when all electrical is lost. Is this the time to be trying to set up a
handheld GPS with remote antenna? What about the backup AI? For that
matter, where's your flashlight?

Don't get me wrong. I have the handheld units to use as backups, too. I
just make sure the handheld GPS is setup while I'm on the ground
(especially
before a night flight) and the transceiver is within arm's reach without
having to turn my head.
/soapbox

Since the airplanes I fly tend to have IFR GPSs, I'm less thrown by
the fact that it may be not quite as user-friendly as a dedicated
GPS. I don't, though, want to be messing with a nest of cables. I
get enough of that at work laugh.

My iPAQ setup has a single wire that I find easy to keep out of the way.
Frankly, I find myself moving the headset cord around much more than the
GPS
cable.

A concern I have is stability of the iPAQ's OS. It's an MSFT
product, no? I've little faith in them, but I've never tried their
portable versions. Have you had a problem with this thing crashing?

While Windows does have a reputation for crashing at inopportune moments,
this opinion is usually propagated by UNIX holdouts, Linux/open source
champions or McLovers.

Kidding aside, the only time I've ever needed to perform a reset on my
device has been during app development (pesky closed loops will do that
every time). The AWM software has never needed a reboot, in my
experience.

--
John T
http://tknowlogy.com/tknoFlyer
__________