Hi all,
I've recently got my PPL and just bought my first GPS unit, so I was wondering: in a Mayday call, would it be any better to declare the current position using GPS co-ordinates, as opposed to the standard distance-from-landmark position report?
I could think of two reasons why that could be preferable:
- I suppose it's a lot easier for the pilot, in an emergency, to just glance at the GPS and read out the co-ords, rather than working out the current position relative to some meaningful landmark nearby.
- It can be a lot more accurate than a vague "5 miles South of XYZ".
On the other hand, ambiguity may arise with regard to the format of the GPS co-ordinates used in the call (degrees-minutes-seconds or degrees-fraction etc.) My question is: what do the guys who actually receive the call think?
I'm sure the subject has already come up somewhere, but I couldn't find any thread on the topic.
Cheers.