GPS Question: What to buy

I have my Garmin GPS 90 with an outdated aviation database for sale... of
course the airports don't move so as long as it's for VFR flight, it's fine.
I don't NEED to sell it but if I received a good offer, I would. Contact me
at if you are seriously interested. Of course you can
update the database through Garmin.

Garmin says this at http://www.garmin.com/products/gps90/

"The GPS 90 became the best-selling aviation handheld by offering pilots
powerful navigation features and tremendous value all in the smallest GPS
package you can buy. Add in a crisp, backlit LCD display, an easy to use
operating system and up to 20 hours of use on just four AA batteries, and
it's no wonder the GPS 90 is the preferred choice of pilots around the
world.
The GPS 90 features a full Jeppesen® database complete with runway diagrams,
airport frequencies and airport services and altitude sensitive, sectorized
Class B and C airspace alerts. All on a 2.2 x 1.5 display that offers
superior readability, even in direct sunlight. And it's easily accessible
through a few simple keystrokes. The GPS 90's moving map display keeps track
of your every move, along with nearby airports, navaids and waypoints. With
continuous track, bearing, distance and ground speed data on screen, you can
use the moving map to navigate right to your destination.

But the power of the GPS 90 doesn't stop there. The navigation page provides
steering guidance to your destination, complete with VNAV, ETE and
crosstrack data. Top it off with a full complement of standard accessories
like a universal yoke mount, power cable and antenna mount, and you've got
the handheld GPS pilots just can't get enough of-the Garmin® GPS 90."

Jerry
--
Jerry Bransford
To email, remove 'me' from my email address
KC6TAY, PP-ASEL
See the Geezer Jeep at
http://members.cox.net/jerrypb/

"Dave Butler" wrote in message
...
Ted Lindgreen wrote:

The 196 is a great GPS, but it has two "features", that, had I
know it before, would have caused me to never have bought it.

1. Lock-to-Road.
The 196 is a combined aviation/automotive/marine GPS.
For road-usage Garmin build in a feature, "Lock-to-Road",
to coverup both map- and GPS errors. As some maps are
pretty bad, and it seems to try to "fix" pre-SA GPS errors,
this can offset your actual position by hundreds of feet.
I have observed my 196 a few times to kick into "Lock-to-Road"
mode when flying above a road. Needless to say that whatever the
instrument then tells you is complete bogus, especially the HSI
is "fun" to watch.....
You will ask: "why the heck don't you disable this??".
The problem is that the 196 automagically enables again it all
the time as side-effect of other settings. There is no way to
set it to off and keep it off (this is confirmed by Garmin).
The only work-around I found sofar is it to religiously check
and reset it every time I at startup and then not touch power,
mode, settings, etc., anymore.

I've not had my 196 for as long as you've had yours, but I've never
observed
this behavior. I'll look for it, though. My observation would have been
that
lock-to-road is in effect in land-mode, but not in aviation mode. I wonder
whether we have different software versions. I'm on 2.7 (from memory). I
think
3.0 is available but I haven't downloaded it.

Go to http://www.garmin.com and put in "lock to road" in the search field
and it
lists several software changes that have been made in that feature.


2. Dead-Reckoning.
Whenever the 196 looses the satellites (which does happen
now and then near certain airports and/or with certain radio
settings), it does not tell you. Instead, it covers up this
fact and just extrapolates whatever your course was for no
less than 30 seconds. You can set an alarm on "accuracy",
but also this alarm is delayed by 30 seconds. So, if you
loose the satellites, only after 30 seconds you find out
that the information the 196 was giving you was bogus.


I have seen this behavior. My old Garmin 90 worked the same way. It's not
a
problem for me.

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