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Old 29th June 2011 | 09:00
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rans6andrew
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Joined: Sep 2004
: PPL
Posts: 883
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From: Berkshire, UK
I would suggest caution when considering "cheap" GPS devices. Bendix King seemed to have screwed up, badly, with the units they use for the AV8OR model. In under 2 years I have had mine replaced twice and I have just returned the third example for a refund after it failed last week. The first two units failed to initialize correctly whenever the battery was less than fully charged, the third unit has a faulty touch screen. I flew around for 2 hours with the unit stuck on the first boot screen unable to select what I wanted to do. The following day it was working as normal. You need to be able to rely on a GPS and not place bets on whether it will work till you get where you are going!

I also have an Aware which has a faulty mains adapter. A quick look inside shows that the soldering seems to be using "the bigger the blob, the better the job" methodology. Not to worry, I needed a cable with the right connector at the end for the aircraft installation so I cut the one from the faulty mains adapter and used that.

The good old (1995!) vintage Skymap II can't be thought of as a cheap GPS, it was over £900 when new, but it is still working as it was meant to.

Rans6...
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