Garmin Basemaps - again

[Fellow Aviator]

I know this subject has been covered in the past, but I still need to get confirmation.

I'm considering to buy a Garmin GPS when visiting US in the near future because I will do some cross country flying in an airplane that hasn't got a GPS. Is it possible to buy a GPS with Americas basemap, and after returning to Europe, to use here if I buy an extra map? I know that the basemap can not be changed but is it possible to load extra basemaps in it?

I'm quite sure that it can be done, but I need confirmation.

Cheers
FA:ok:

[drauk]

Certainly not in the older units like the Pilot III and the 196. Don't know about newer ones, but I'd be surprised if it has changed.

[Fellow Aviator]

If you buy a Garmin GPS with a US basemap, it is pratically useless here in Europe? It's reasonable that Pilot III can't updated since its a low-end GPS, but one could expect that a $1000 GPS would work (with an update) here also. I'll write Garmin an e-mail about this, but if anyone has experince with this issue, please tell.

[Mike Cross]

Flew today with one of my co-owners.

He has a US bought 196 with the US basemap, I have a UK one. His one has a card with the UK stuff on it plugged in.

Apart from the fact that his is set up differently to mine I noticed not a lot of difference.

[dublinpilot]

What is on a base map? I take it, it's rivers, lakes, roads and towns etc?

So if you buy a US one, and can't replace it with a european base map, do you miss out on all this stuff?

If not, then what do you actually lose out on, if you have the wrong base map?

dp

[Mike Cross]

Go look at this. (http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap196/#)

[david viewing]

The old GPS92, probably easily available 2nd hand, was advertised as being 'worldwide'. What this meant was that it had worldwide airport positions and identifiers. (Not sure about navaids). This was (is) very useful for VFR flying where you are looking out of the window rather than at a moving map inside the cockpit.

The snag was that the (optional) airspace database was for either Europe or Americas. You can swap them in a few minutes with a PC, but they only supplied one.

When I bought mine and discovered that the airspace was Europe only, I complained about the misleading advertising, they sent me the Americas database FOC! Good O'l Garmin!

But even without the airspace, it's a good tool for flying in the right general direction and landing at the right airport. And of course you can put in your own co-ordinates for those elusive grass strips or VFR reporting points.