NATS Aware GPS with Nav Pack

[Lister Noble]

I have searched this and the Flyer forum for up to date info and feedback re the Aware navigation unit.
Has anyone used one for a while,what do you thinnk and are there any updates scheduled for near future.?
I don't want to buy one then find it has been superseded by a new model.
Lister:)

[Intercepted]

The only updates you wouldn't be covered for are hardware updates and they don't happen that often.

I bought an early version of Airbox Clarity and have had all software updates for free ever since. The Aware Navigation software is made by Airbox and based on the same software as Clarity.

If you want navigation you should also consider Clarity. I believe Aware with Nav is the same as Clarity, but Clarity's hardware is a bit more powerful.

[stiknruda]

Lister, i have a couple of "Campaneros" at Seething who swear by theirs. Happy to affect an intro if that would help.

Stik

[Molesworth 1]

Very pleased with mine. The battery lasts less than an hour but with the PowerMoney I get about three and a half hours.

Don't rely on the altitude read out though. It was showing 6000+ feet when the altimeter was showing 2000 feet. A look out the window confirmed that it was not the altimeter which was wrong!

I even plotted a route to Ostend using the Fast Plan software. Off the chart for the last bit but still showed the bearing and the distance to destination.

[Lister Noble]

Thanks Stik,might well do that.
Lister:)

[stevelup]

Don't rely on the altitude read out though. It was showing 6000+ feet when the altimeter was showing 2000 feet.

That's a bit concerning given that the whole point of the device is to assist in the avoiding of CAS. Was this a sustained error or a one off?

[IO540]

I have never flown with this unit but I think any GPS which shows the actual real "printed" VFR chart is just brilliant.

When I fly UK VFR I am always running such a setup (on a 8" tablet computer; a bit clumsy to be recommended). It is great for complicated zigzagging around the edge of the LTMA, e.g. trying to stay VMC on top at FL054 :)

A poor battery life is not much of an issue provided you have a spare cigar lighter socket. In my rental days, renting junk on which half the panel didn't work, I used a Skymap 2 GPS which had the same issue, but I replaced the cigar lighter lead with a 12V sealed lead acid battery which lived in the door compartment and which would last 10-15hrs.

[Rod1]

I tested the basic AWARE, but sent it back. In an aircraft with a “bubble” canopy it washed out completely. The screen is also quite small and if you fly something quick you have the choice of seeing 2 in front or a scale which tells you almost nothing. The airspace warning is 1st class though.

Rod1

[mikehallam]

My basic £150 model saved my bacon & my 'plane in less than Sunlit VMC on the way to the LAA Rally on the Friday.
That's when it really counts, it's already paid for itself many times over.

As for 'scale', the AWARE display chart is exactly the same size as the std. 1/2mill. paper version. So hardly any problem there !

Even in basic form the nav. capability is stupendous.

I should think if you've money and space for the bigger 7" screen, go for it.
Free airspace (& software) updates from an English company that responds to individual clients has to be hard to beat for quality at an unbeatable price.

mikehallam.



p.s.[A small card 'eyebrow' takes the edge off very bright Sun].

[whirlwind]

IO540 "A poor battery life is not much of an issue provided you have a spare cigar lighter socket"

I have a socket in my ac, but plugging in the charging lead just gives me dreadful interferance on my VHF. Airbox didn't have a solution when I last contacted them a few weeks ago. Any ideas for a suppressed male 12v plugin to mini usb?

Ta.
WW

[Charles Sierra]

Lister .I am Seething based and have an Aware unit .It is very reliable and even hollers out as you approach the Poringland masts :ok:. I am not about this Saturday but pm me if you want to take a look sometime .

Cheers

Charles Sierra.

[stevelup]

plugging in the charging lead just gives me dreadful interferance on my VHF

All I can suggest is to just try another one, any one. I had the same situation in my car. My old satnav charger used to interfere with the radio so badly that it was unlistenable. I just grabbed another one that was lying around and there was no problem at all.

[IO540]

The interference suggests that the GPS contains a switching power supply which is radiating a lot of muck. Or the GPS itself radiates a lot of muck which is conducted down the cable.

Does that product conform to any emissions specs? It cannot be sold in the EU if it doesn't, but the specs may not mean anything in an aircraft scenario.

I have a satphone car holder which does the same.

Such products should not be sold into the aviation market, though the satphone car holder (a Thuraya product of Turkish (http://www.sattrans.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=37&Itemid=18&lang=en&vmcchk=1&Itemid=18) manufacture) would stop VHF radio reception in the car also.

It might be easy to fix or it might not. With the satphone I had to build a filter comprising of two capacitors and a double inductor. A clamp-on ferrite filter is cheap and simple but did nothing at all.

[stevelup]

It was the switch mode PSU in the actual charger plug causing the problem - the interference was there regardless of whether the satnav was plugged in or not.

If you break them apart, some of them are of a horrendous design and don't include any filters or shielding at all. But then, what can you expect for $1 from China...

The one electrically 'silent' one I came across was a genuine TomTom one.

[Lister Noble]

Many thank,I live very near so will do that.
Lister:)