GPS Models -- Pros and Cons

Jay,

A Garmin 295 lives on my copilot yoke. I like it quite a bit - use it for
backup, mainly, and for landmark identification once in awhile.

Once upon a time it was the ONLY GPS in my airplane. (Now I have an
IFR-certified GPS.) I used it a lot. Would I have found the AnywhereMap nearly
as functional? In a word, no. Excusing the wire mess and the fact that it's a
fragile, non-aviation device for use in a pretty rugged environment, the real
problem is interfacing with the damn thing. I have a cheap-o Palm Pilot VIIx
that I've written about on the newsgroups a few times, and I love it. I've used
it for a year now and have told everyone and their brother how cost-effective it
is to get in-cockpit weather with CBAV. But I only have to use it to get
weather images and such, so I tap in a few characters, sit the unit on the
glareshield and wait a moment to retrieve the data I want. Using an iPaq for
regular GPS usage - no way - or, I'd rather not, anyway. The AnywhereMap WX has
such attractive features. I just wish they'd build it all into a portable box
designed to work in the airplane - voila, an aviation GPS with weather
detection built in. If they made it, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. For GPS alone,
I really don't see the advantage of the AnywhereMap system. I evaluate aviation
products for use in an aviation environment, and while getting the extra
features of an iPaq for non-aviation tasks is nice, losing the robustness of the
built-like-a-tank Garmins is a poor tradeoff in my opinion.

Another significant downside to the interface problem is your head-down time.
The amount you spend looking inside with the PDA vs. the GPS will be greater.

Best,

Ryan



Jay Honeck wrote:

I've been leaning towards a Garmin 196 to replace our ailing Lowrance Airmap
300. However, now that Garmin has announced they are no longer going to
support the Garmin 90, it appears that they are no better at support than
Lowrance -- who recently "orphaned" my Airmap from all technical support.
(This occurred right before it started acting flaky, naturally.)

So, I'm now thinking about one of these Compaq Ipaq/GPS combinations. One
of our guests at the inn gave me a 15 minute "tour" of his, and I was fairly
impressed with:

- The color screen.
- The strength of the software.
- The fact that it just doesn't sit in the plane, but is actually useful
beyond flying.

Apparent downsides we

- The screen didn't look bright enough in direct sunlight
- The "pen" interface seemed like a tough thing to handle, especially in
turbulence.
- The clutter of wires in the cockpit sounds like a mess.

What says the group? Anyone out there care to comment on the various
strengths and weaknesses? I've only got about ten days left to make up my
mind!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Ryan Ferguson" wrote in message


Another significant downside to the interface problem is your
head-down time. The amount you spend looking inside with the PDA vs.
the GPS will be greater.

Not necessarily.

Using just the moving map display on both units, for example, will not show
a difference in head-down time.

Depending on the type of activity you're doing, either unit can cause more
head-down time than the other.

The fact remains that the only way to truly evaluate the difference is to
take a flight with both units.

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