Garmin 530 Fatal Error

Wyatt,

What great defenders of mediocrity you all are!


Well, remind us again about your background in constructuing,
programming AND certifying aviation GPS units. Or could it it be you're
just a smart*ss trying to insult a large number of people at once?

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Wyatt Emmerich wrote:
What great defenders of mediocrity you all are! It is unbelievably simple to
program the 530 to flash the message "Do not press send until xxxx feet."
Or, pray tell, it could actually use the GPS to determine the altitude and
not blink the SUSP until you reach it.

What exactly is the point of defending the ancient "let the idiots die"
philosophy. I suspect it's some misguided macho "holier than thou" ideology
rooted more in egotism than desire for safe system.

As pilots, we should be pressing Garmin to do better, not excusing
substandard programming. Chelton and many others have already made this fix.
What is the point of making excuses for Garmin. You want all the pilots
lacking your skills to die? God bless you.

So far Chelton isn't taking much market share from Garmin. Perhaps you should
start your own GPS company, then you can decide how best to spend your
development and certification dollars, and if you do it right, you'll drive
Garmin right out of the market. After all, it's unbelievably simple to program.

As the marketing folks at companies where I have developed software like to say,
it's SMOP, a simple matter of programming.

"Dave Butler" wrote:

As the marketing folks at companies where I have developed software like to
say, it's SMOP, a simple matter of programming.

From the "old days" at Honeywell, the Software Order Of Magnitude Law:

Software revisions estimated to take a day will take a week.

Software revisions estimated to take a week will take a month.

Software revisions estimated to take a month will take a year.

Software revisions estimated to take a year will never be finished.


--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

Doug wrote On 10/13/05 18:32,:
What circumstances ? You are flying upside down ?


Let us say you are approaching a waypoint headed due west. You push
direct to and have a course line to the waypoint. Now let us say thay
you move to the south by 1/2 mile. The waypoint is to your right
(north). The CDI reads to the right as it should. Your GPS says your
waypoint is 1/2 mile right. Now you DO A 180 DEGREE turn (to the south
so you are still south of the waypoint. Your CDI still says it is to
the right, indicating it is to the SOUTH!. (Unless you have a Garmin
480 which is the only IFR certified GPS unit that will correct for
this). Some handhelds may correct for this also. ALL the IFR GPS units
that were certified under the old spec (pre WAAS), will reverse sense.


I suppose that was a stupid question on my part. I have never actually
used a CDI except as a novice pilot. I consider them to be about as
technically advanced as a steam powered can opener.

I'm not sure how Garmin would correct for a CDI's faults, but I'll take
your word for it.

Thomas Borchert wrote On 10/14/05 00:27,:
Wyatt,


What great defenders of mediocrity you all are!



Well, remind us again about your background in constructuing,
programming AND certifying aviation GPS units. Or could it it be you're
just a smart*ss trying to insult a large number of people at once?


Come on. The smartest programmers I know have never written a line of
code :-)

Wyatt Emmerich wrote On 10/13/05 17:41,:

What exactly is the point of defending the ancient "let the idiots die"
philosophy. I suspect it's some misguided macho "holier than thou" ideology
rooted more in egotism than desire for safe system.

We are advancing Darwinisim, and thus improving mankind. Its actually a
very noble goal, something akin to handing out shotguns in the deep south.

Oh, wait a minute, too late.....

"Wyatt Emmerich" wrote in message
...
What great defenders of mediocrity you all are! It is unbelievably simple
to program the 530 to flash the message "Do not press send until xxxx
feet." Or, pray tell, it could actually use the GPS to determine the
altitude and not blink the SUSP until you reach it.

Well, the SUSP starts blinking when the waypoint sequencing is SUSPended.
The MSG light illuminates when ther is a MeSsaGe. The "Turn to XXX"
illuminates when the course programmed into the box requires a Turn to XXX.
Seems reasonable to me.

Mike
MU-2

"Peter" wrote in message
...

"Doug" wrote:

Let us say you are approaching a waypoint headed due west. You push
direct to and have a course line to the waypoint. Now let us say thay
you move to the south by 1/2 mile. The waypoint is to your right
(north). The CDI reads to the right as it should. Your GPS says your
waypoint is 1/2 mile right. Now you DO A 180 DEGREE turn (to the south
so you are still south of the waypoint. Your CDI still says it is to
the right, indicating it is to the SOUTH!.

Which, presumably, why an HSI is better because one can see at a
glance that the course pointer is pointing the opposite way to one's
heading, so one can clearly see the deflection of the bar is not in
the correct direction.

How does the 480 correct for this? To do anything, it needs to be
aware of the aircraft heading. Does it have a heading input?


It could just use track.

Mike
MU-2

Scott,

Come on. The smartest programmers I know have never written a line of
code :-)


A good one :-)

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Dave Butler wrote:
Andrew Gideon wrote:

Dave Butler wrote:


The GNS480 (and maybe all TSO 146 navigators, I don't know) have the
concept of a leg that terminates at an altitude, which will be the first
leg of such a missed approach procedure.



How is that displayed on the map? Does the map automatically shift
the next
leg to "direct to the next waypoint" from the location at which the
altitude is reached? What waypoint is displayed in the climbing leg?


http://www.garmin.com/manuals/GNS480_PilotsGuide.pdf (7+ meg download)

see p. 66(74 of 158) Leg Types
p. 68(76 of 158) Heading to an Altitude
p. 80(88 of 158) Flying the Missed Approach

The page number is the Garmin page numbering, and the (nn of 158) is the
pdf page number.


This sounds like an incredibly useful feature.

There's a departure procedure at KTEB that's even more complex than
this. From runways 1 and 6, this feature would cover it. But from 19,
the
procedure is runway heading until 800, then right to 280. Maintain 1500
until crossing the TEB R-250 & passing TEB 2.5 DME, then climb to 2000.

Note the "TEB R-250 & passing TEB 2.5 DME" "waypoint". Can the 480
handle
this?


Sorry, I don't have time to check on this right now, but maybe you can
answer this question with the information from the references above.
I'll try to look at this later.

I've just had a week off and had a little time to look at this. It appears that
the answer is that this departure procedure is not in the 480's database, same
as for all DPs that are strictly "pilot nav". There is no GPS guidance for this
departure procedure. This DP is all about headings to fly, no navigational guidance.

Dave