Garmin Pilot III
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Before "Ze Germans" get here
Joined: Apr 2003
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From: ?
Garmin Pilot III
I had the use of a Garmin Pilot III GPS when flying in America, and found it a bloody usefull bit of kit with about every function that would ever be reasonably needed. Particulalry Airspace and nearest airport functions. I have started flying in Europe and I feel a bit naked without one. I have decided that I would like to buy another one. A friend of mine has offered me one that he bought in America and hence has the American Database on it. My Question is can I put the European one on it? Will it still have all the detail on the moving map? Or is it just a generic Map? What other GPS units are on the market for the same sort of money with the same ease of use as the Garmin that you could recomend? Cheers.
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 661
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From: up North
You can indeed put the International database on your GPSIII but it will replace the existing data. If you don't have any disks for the original data you'll lose it.
I swapped mine over to the Americas database for a while and then reloaded the original data when I came back.
I agree that it's a darned good little unit. Must admit though that I turn off the airspace warnings for the UK as they are almost permanently activating..
An interesting site for Garmin database manipulation can be found at
Avia_DBM
jb
I swapped mine over to the Americas database for a while and then reloaded the original data when I came back.
I agree that it's a darned good little unit. Must admit though that I turn off the airspace warnings for the UK as they are almost permanently activating..
An interesting site for Garmin database manipulation can be found at
Avia_DBM
jb
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Before "Ze Germans" get here
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From: ?
Jabberwok thanks for the reply. So If I go ahead and buy an American databased GPS where do I get the database info for the new one. I presume its by means of a CD Rom and a cable from PC to GPS? The Link you posted worked but the links on the page don't work. Is the new Database as detailed as the American one?
PPRuNe Knight in Shining Armour
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From: Everywhere in the UK, but not home!
You can download it from the Garmin Website for a small fee, but you'll need a COM/GPS connection cable, available from all good stockists at about £25.
PPruNaholic!
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From: Buckinghamshire
BUT when I looked into this, although you can download the aviation data (airspace, navaids, airfields etc) but not the terrain, roads, water etc. which is burnt into EPROM, so perhaps beware of this...
Andy
Andy
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Before "Ze Germans" get here
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From: ?
Thats the info I was looking for. Its a shame its not a straight swap, as its much cheaper to buy them second hand on e-bay etc. I'll have to consider if I want to use a slightly below par conversion it would seem?
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Before "Ze Germans" get here
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From: ?
Your right of course, I just get quite wound up at the price divide between Irl/UK and the Us, if I could have swopped database it would have made a lot more sense. Thanks for the replies.
Joined: Nov 2002
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From: KHIO - Portland, Oregon. USA
Be Careful
Just a quick thought, the Pilot III is officially discontinued, and based on previous experience with Garmin, this means that at some point in the no-too-distant future, they will stop producing updates for it. I would look at the GPS-96 or 96C if you can afford it, that is the one I am replacing my GPS-90 with.
