Which GPS for a Club Member?

[mixturelean]

Hi Folks,

My apologies for bringing up this subject again but I would like to pick your brains on which GPS is best for a club member who flies about 20 - 40 hours per year.

I am thinking of buying either a Garmin Pilot III or a Garmin 196 but I just want to be sure, before I make up my mind, that both work well being transported in and out of different planes. It would be important that the system would have:

a) A good reception using only the aerial on the unit (no external aerial),
b) Have a good battery life - I would not object to having to charge batteries on the day before I fly,
c) Be easy to use en route - user friendly.

Also, is the 196 worth the extra cost over the Pilot III?

I would be very interested in your opinions.

Thanks Folks,

Mixturelean

[IO540]

A good reception using only the aerial on the unit (no external aerial

The above is the one thing which cannot be relied on

[Ludwig]

Mixturelean

Get the 196 it is the absolute ballon de chien. I have used one in everything from a baby pitts to twins and the only time I have had duff info is when going vertically upweards in the Pitts!! I use it in the air and in the car.

[bar shaker]

Also, the 196 comes with a remote aerial that fixes to the window on little suction pads and a yoke mount.

Having the unit in front of you, rather than right up at the front edge of the dash, will make it much easier to use and read. When you leave the ac, simply pull the remote aerial off the inside of the screen and take it all home. Using it this way will ensure much better sattelite reception, so less chance of errors/loss of service.

Battery life on both is very good. 196 has an approximate battery time remaining display too.

[Boing_737]

If you have a PocketPC2002/3 based PDA (such as an Ipaq or Dell Axim), you could try the software from pocketfms (http://www.pocketfms.com) . The software is free, but you will need to connect the PDA to a GPS receiver (you can get compact flash receivers that have ports for external antennas - they don't cost huge amounts of cash). The advantage of this is that you could use the same system for something like TomTom Navigator and get talking in-car GPS as well

It has maps of practically every FIR you can think of and has all the airspace marked. It has flight planning built in, and you can even put your aircrafts performance figures in for fuel calcs etc. You can also do a goto, but tell it to avoid controlled airspace, danger areas etc - its not infallible (spelling?) but better than just drawing a straight line on the chart.

I have played around with it, but not in anger, but as its free if you have the hardware its worth a look IMHO.

If you want to play around with it, you can use all the facilities on a desktop PC - the idea is that you do your planning on the desktop and then synch up with the PDA, but you can plan on the PDA as well.

Also, check out pocketgps (http://www.pocketgps.co.uk) as this has info on various GPSs

Cheers:ok:

[mixturelean]

Thanks Ludwig, Bar Shaker and Boing_737,

It looks like the 196 is the better option - it sounds like it may be worth the extra bucks over the Pilot III.

Mixturelean.