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#11
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Can someone give me an opinion on what type of GPS unit is good enough for me. I'm a GA pilot, very low time, looking for a decent GPS to take along for some X/C flying in the rentals. Just need to see highways and cities etc. I'm not very worried about airspace as there isn't much around my local airport and the charts do a good enough job. I use a Garmin III Plus as my main (not primary navigation tool in the Cub. I did download a data chunk of airports and other landmarks within 200 miles ($4.50?) , massaged it on my computer with Easy GPS (free), and uploaded it to the Garmin. I am however a recreational pilot, so I don't do towered airports as a rule. www.pipercubforum.com/garmin.htm -- scroll down for the Easy GPS link. all the best -- Dan Ford email: see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com |
#12
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Rd,
Just need to see highways and cities etc. I'm not very worried about airspace as there isn't much around my local airport and the charts do a good enough job. Well, I have to ask: why do you want one, then? GPS is great for airspace awareness, it is better than charts for that. But if you don't fell a need there, why not spend the money on flying? If you are using a PocketPC anyway, the PDA solutions might be best. If not, I'd look at the Lowrance Airmap 500 and the Garmin III Pilot for entry-level units. Many people think the Airmap 500 offers a better value. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) |
#13
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John,
To compare the dedicated unit to the PDA unit, consider these points: you forgot: In-flight entertainment. Your PDA will double as an MP3 music player on long flights which can be connected to the intercom. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) |
#14
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Steven,
Anybody know where to get yoke mounts? RAM mounts are hard to beat. Not the cheapest, but probably the most rugged and definitely the most versatile. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) |
#15
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I have a Garmin GPS III (not the "Pilot" version - received it as a gift)
I use it in the aircraft all the time, and love it. Out of the box, it contains virtually no information, other than highways, water, cities, etc. However, using any one of many on-line sources for generating airport/navaid/obstruction waypoints, and other software to upload these to the unit, I now have a very nice unit. It shows all of the airports within a 200 mile radius (indicated by an airplane symbol,) all of the VOR's, and all of the towers 1,000' AGL (indicated by a tower symbol.) The unit is limited to 500 of these user-defined waypoints, but if I decide to take a longer trip, I can easily go to a website and generate waypoints for the route and upload these instead of the 200 mile radius ones. Also, just about any unit can be used with other PC based moving map software. I am starting to play around with Oziexplorer, using the FAA sectional charts that Kyler Laird has provided on his website. Wow - what a neat little, cheap moving map solution! "RD" wrote in message ... Good day, Can someone give me an opinion on what type of GPS unit is good enough for me. I'm a GA pilot, very low time, looking for a decent GPS to take along for some X/C flying in the rentals. Just need to see highways and cities etc. I'm not very worried about airspace as there isn't much around my local airport and the charts do a good enough job. 1. Are basic GPS modules such as the ones you take camping/fishing good enough? 2. What about PalmPilot/Windows CE based hand held units? 3. Is it worth buying a decent Garmin model? What are your experiences? Thanks, Ryan |
#16
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RD wrote:
Can someone give me an opinion on what type of GPS unit is good enough for me. I'm a GA pilot, very low time, looking for a decent GPS to take along for some X/C flying in the rentals. I just bought a Garmin 196, and it's an astoundingly good unit (and easy to mount in different planes). If you want to pay a lot less, though, you can try a non-aviation Magellan 315; I've used one for a while, and since it's so small, I'm keeping it as a backup. Here are some of the benefits: 1. Cheap. 2. Small and light enough to carry in a jacket pocket. 3. Waterproof (and it floats). 4. Free, up-to-date U.S. aviation database available from http://home.stny.rr.com/bkw/315/ Here are the drawbacks: 1. Map display includes points only, no lines (i.e. no highways, coastlines, or SUA). 2. Does not inform you when it loses satellite lock. 3. No support for an external antenna (though the internal one works well). 4. You have to buy the PC cable/cigar-lighter adapter separately. If I were starting from scratch, and didn't want to spend USD 800-900 on a Garmin 196, I'd probably buy a snap-on GPS for a wireless PDA. I think there's some clever software that can also download weather over a wireless connection and show it on the PDA along with the aviation data. All the best, David |
#17
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However, using any one of many on-line sources for generating
airport/navaid/obstruction waypoints, and other software to upload these to the unit, I now have a very nice unit. It shows all of the airports within a 200 mile radius (indicated by an airplane symbol,) all of the VOR's, and all of the towers 1,000' AGL (indicated by a tower symbol.) The unit is limited to 500 of these user-defined waypoints, but if I decide to take a longer trip, I can easily go to a website and generate waypoints for the route and upload these instead of the 200 mile radius ones. which website do you use? Do you happen to have a list of websites that offer these waypoints? thanks Gerald Sylvester |
#18
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Ryan,
I have been using a simple Garmin 12XL GPS for I guess the better part of 6 years now. I even take it with me when I fly for the National Guard in the good ole Huey. I have programmed several waypoints and airports into it. It works real good for what I need. Especially since in the national guard, on tactical missions we are using ground map with MGRS this GPS has it. It has a bunch of map datum to choose from too. I have all the local airport programmed into it. One reply here says that the nearest airport features are nice. I bet they are. I have found myself a few times looking for an airport. But for the most part I program all the navaids and airport in the vicinity of my route. FWIW, I've been looking the palmpilot stuff too. It will be interesting to see what turns up here. I know one of the common complaints about them, is that they are hard to read in direct sun light. Fred "RD" wrote in message ... Good day, Can someone give me an opinion on what type of GPS unit is good enough for me. I'm a GA pilot, very low time, looking for a decent GPS to take along for some X/C flying in the rentals. Just need to see highways and cities etc. I'm not very worried about airspace as there isn't much around my local airport and the charts do a good enough job. 1. Are basic GPS modules such as the ones you take camping/fishing good enough? 2. What about PalmPilot/Windows CE based hand held units? 3. Is it worth buying a decent Garmin model? What are your experiences? Thanks, Ryan |
#19
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"Gerald Sylvester" wrote in message
nk.net... However, using any one of many on-line sources for generating airport/navaid/obstruction waypoints, and other software to upload these to the unit, I now have a very nice unit. It shows all of the airports within a 200 mile radius (indicated by an airplane symbol,) all of the VOR's, and all of the towers 1,000' AGL (indicated by a tower symbol.) The unit is limited to 500 of these user-defined waypoints, but if I decide to take a longer trip, I can easily go to a website and generate waypoints for the route and upload these instead of the 200 mile radius ones. which website do you use? Do you happen to have a list of websites that offer these waypoints? I've used these to get data from: http://www.airnav.com/ for airports and NavAids and http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrS...tionSearch.jsp for antennas and towers. I put the data into spreadsheets, export it to my GPS mapping software then download it to the GPS. Works fairly well. There are aviation databases available for download which are quite large. I remember downloading a database once and deleting all the waypoints that were above or below certain latitudes and longitudes to get the list down to the state/area that I would do +95% of my flying. |
#20
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Waypoints along a route, towers, etc. (slightly out of date)
http://131.238.38.204/~sarangan/avia...min/index.html More updated information, world-wide, no obstructions, GPX format, which may need to be converted to a format for your import/export software (see Topographix website): http://navaid.com/GPX/ FAA GeoTIFF sectionals: http://aviationtoolbox.org/raw_data/FAA_sectionals/ Oziexplorer: www.oziexplorer.com "Gerald Sylvester" wrote in message nk.net... However, using any one of many on-line sources for generating airport/navaid/obstruction waypoints, and other software to upload these to the unit, I now have a very nice unit. It shows all of the airports within a 200 mile radius (indicated by an airplane symbol,) all of the VOR's, and all of the towers 1,000' AGL (indicated by a tower symbol.) The unit is limited to 500 of these user-defined waypoints, but if I decide to take a longer trip, I can easily go to a website and generate waypoints for the route and upload these instead of the 200 mile radius ones. which website do you use? Do you happen to have a list of websites that offer these waypoints? thanks Gerald Sylvester |
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