Portabler GPS for Private Flying in CESSNA
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Portabler GPS for Private Flying in CESSNA
I was wondering on the best type of Portable GPS for Private Flying. What are the opinions on the GPS AVMAP 495. Especially using coordinates for flying to farm strips.
I use a 296, have had it in and out of a few Cessnas, and the yoke mount is perfect. You can easily enter coordinates as a waypoint to get to any farm strip you might like - I love mine! It was my backup unit for a 5 week flying/camping trip across America too (the 172SP had a panel mounted moving map), and I have no complaints at all.
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It makes a refreshing change to hear from someone who uses a back up GPS to another primary GPS, rather than those who think it should be a back up to a mark one eyeball and stopwatch, (which should be the last port of call..)
Just remember the name Garmin. Buy a Garmin 296. Buy a Garmin Fortrex 201 as a backup.
The aircraft I usually do long distance stuff in has a TSO'd Garmin GNS 430 with all the bells and whistles built in, but I usually put the Fortrex 201 on the yoke and have it programmed to the same destination as a backup. Then there is an old Garmin Etrex with spare batteries in my flight bag.
I cross check everything with everything else and mark my position on the map every ten minutes.
P.S. Don't EVER pass up an opportunity to nail your exact position. The GNS 430 has RAIM built in, but the consumer level stuff hasn't, and with my usual luck they always stop seeing sufficient satellites at a critical time.
P.S. On my first outback trip in a C172, the Fortrex 201 guided me most of the way....but these days I like something with a good autopilot.
P.P.S. Make sure that what you get can be moved around easily if you are in a 172 or suchlike. Unless you have a remote mount aerial that you can stick up high on the windscreen, you may need to place your gps on the dash sometimes so it can "see" the satellites around the wing.
The aircraft I usually do long distance stuff in has a TSO'd Garmin GNS 430 with all the bells and whistles built in, but I usually put the Fortrex 201 on the yoke and have it programmed to the same destination as a backup. Then there is an old Garmin Etrex with spare batteries in my flight bag.
I cross check everything with everything else and mark my position on the map every ten minutes.
P.S. Don't EVER pass up an opportunity to nail your exact position. The GNS 430 has RAIM built in, but the consumer level stuff hasn't, and with my usual luck they always stop seeing sufficient satellites at a critical time.
P.S. On my first outback trip in a C172, the Fortrex 201 guided me most of the way....but these days I like something with a good autopilot.
P.P.S. Make sure that what you get can be moved around easily if you are in a 172 or suchlike. Unless you have a remote mount aerial that you can stick up high on the windscreen, you may need to place your gps on the dash sometimes so it can "see" the satellites around the wing.
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https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=156
I use the 196 and have done for a few years. I'm very happy with it and I fly into strips. I have rigged a panel mount in the Luscombe and have a power cable and use the remote antenna that came with it sucker-mounted to the roof window. I use Navbox Proplan for planning and upload the route into the 196 in seconds. No doubt you'll have something in Oz that will do a similar job.
I use the 196 and have done for a few years. I'm very happy with it and I fly into strips. I have rigged a panel mount in the Luscombe and have a power cable and use the remote antenna that came with it sucker-mounted to the roof window. I use Navbox Proplan for planning and upload the route into the 196 in seconds. No doubt you'll have something in Oz that will do a similar job.
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I use (and help a little bit with the development of) PocketFMS.
It runs on a PDA, many modern car sat nav's, or a tablet PC.
It also runs on your pc, meaning easy and simply flight planning (including weather and radar in Australia) on your PC, and quick and simple transfer of your plans to your mobile device (PDA or car sat nav).
It will even automatically create NAIPS notification file (.dtl) for Australian users, making submission of flight plans electronically a sinch.
Some of the modern car sat nav's have excellent screens, and can be much better in sunlight than PDA's. I use a Mio 320B and it's perfect in sunlight. It also makes a very portable system when you rent aircraft.
The system is regularly updated, so you don't need to update your hardware to get new features.
The big downside I suppose is that you can't point at it and say "I'd like one of those please." You need to buy the hardware yourself, and then buy PocketFMS, which involves a little research into hardware on your behalf. There is plenty of help for this though on the PocketFMS forums.
There is a free 30 day trial available on the website Home of the PocketFMS Foundation.
dp
It runs on a PDA, many modern car sat nav's, or a tablet PC.
It also runs on your pc, meaning easy and simply flight planning (including weather and radar in Australia) on your PC, and quick and simple transfer of your plans to your mobile device (PDA or car sat nav).
It will even automatically create NAIPS notification file (.dtl) for Australian users, making submission of flight plans electronically a sinch.
Some of the modern car sat nav's have excellent screens, and can be much better in sunlight than PDA's. I use a Mio 320B and it's perfect in sunlight. It also makes a very portable system when you rent aircraft.
The system is regularly updated, so you don't need to update your hardware to get new features.
The big downside I suppose is that you can't point at it and say "I'd like one of those please." You need to buy the hardware yourself, and then buy PocketFMS, which involves a little research into hardware on your behalf. There is plenty of help for this though on the PocketFMS forums.
There is a free 30 day trial available on the website Home of the PocketFMS Foundation.
dp
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get an external antenna
P.S. Don't EVER pass up an opportunity to nail your exact position. The GNS 430 has RAIM built in, but the consumer level stuff hasn't, and with my usual luck they always stop seeing sufficient satellites at a critical time.
P.P.S. Make sure that what you get can be moved around easily if you are in a 172 or suchlike. Unless you have a remote mount aerial that you can stick up high on the windscreen, you may need to place your gps on the dash sometimes so it can "see" the satellites around the wing.
PS: by 'external' I am referring to an antenna plugged into the unit, but mounted somewhere inside the a/c, not one mounted to the outside of the a/c.
It makes a refreshing change to hear from someone who uses a back up GPS to another primary GPS, rather than those who think it should be a back up to a mark one eyeball and stopwatch, (which should be the last port of call..)
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It was not at all intended as a sarcastic post. Deadly earnest. You are far safer relying on a GPS than a chart, stopwatch and eyeball. For some strange reason people have become accustomed to getting all defensive about using GPS, saying that they only ever use it as a back up to "conventional navigation," whereas in this day and age it should be the primary source of Nav info.
To be honest, I think that even the CAA nowadays have no problem with GPS as primary navigation.
It's using it for sole navigation that worries them, and rightly so.
G
It's using it for sole navigation that worries them, and rightly so.
G
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Originally Posted by flybymike
It was not at all intended as a sarcastic post. Deadly earnest. You are far safer relying on a GPS than a chart, stopwatch and eyeball. For some strange reason people have become accustomed to getting all defensive about using GPS, saying that they only ever use it as a back up to "conventional navigation," whereas in this day and age it should be the primary source of Nav info.
Go to the airprox board and find the report about the aircraft that very nearly collided with a glider on a winch launch. The pilot had flown around happily for hours carefully avoiding all the airspace using the highly accurate and reliable position he was getting on his moving map display but the winch launching site hadn't been added to his database yet.
And I suppose that when you read the notams before flying you add the location and times of the Red Arrows displays and RA(T)'s to your database so you are aware of them whilst flying along looking at your GPS display?
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To be honest, I think that even the CAA nowadays have no problem with GPS as primary navigation.
It's using it for sole navigation that worries them, and rightly so.
It's using it for sole navigation that worries them, and rightly so.
Firstly, in BRNAV airspace (FL095+ is most of Europe) the only way to navigate is using a GPS. Not only is a GPS the only possible means of compliance with BRNAV requirements (INS being the other but not applicable for GA) but it is also the only practical way given that ATC treat all waypoints as RNAV waypoints and don't care if some of them are VORs or whatever. One could argue these waypoints could be navigated to using a KNS80 but you often get a DCT to some waypoint 200nm away and a KNS80 won't work because it still needs to be within reception of a real VOR/DME. So... a GPS, used solely, is the only practical way to do this, and the CAA implicitly fully supports this, as does every other European authority. RNAV is the way the world has gone.
In principle one could say that one still has the traditional backup (VORs or just ask ATC for vectors) but in reality the system is totally dependent on RNAV capability and would not function without it.
Secondly, all the traditionalists seem to be quite happy when somebody says they navigate solely using dead reckoning (map, stopwatch, compass) with no fallback. This is what is taught in the PPL, after all. Sole DR with no backup. There are many ways to c*ock this up. Even if GPS was 90% reliable it would still be better. In reality it is perhaps 99.99% reliable.
Unfortunately nobody in the CAA is going to go on record supporting sole use of GPS because the CAA also presides over the PPL syllabus, the teaching of which would collapse if this was actually adopted.
Go to the airprox board and find the report about the aircraft that very nearly collided with a glider on a winch launch. The pilot had flown around happily for hours carefully avoiding all the airspace using the highly accurate and reliable position he was getting on his moving map display but the winch launching site hadn't been added to his database yet.
Babies and bathwater come to mind.
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I suspect GtE's comments were probably directed at portable systems. They can be subject to problems that certificated systems aren't, such as poor antenna placement, lack of external power sources, or as is commonly the case in VFR systems-out of date databases(IFR ones are usually kept uptodate).
Not so much an equipment problem, but a user one, but none the less a reasonable concern if it's your only means of navigation.
Not so much an equipment problem, but a user one, but none the less a reasonable concern if it's your only means of navigation.
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JBGA, the incidents you quote about Glider winch launches, Red Arrow RATs etc are pilot errors, not GPS errors. GPS as a primary source of Nav from A To B will work quite normally regardless of airspace and database updates. Plan the route on GPS, run it in sim mode to check your navigation planning, and then use an up to date chart and Notams to avoid RATs and anything else not in the database. I certainly don't advocate blind unplanned reliance on out of date GPS databases.
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the incidents you quote about Glider winch launches, Red Arrow RATs etc are pilot errors, not GPS errors.
Not updating GPS database = pilot error
Not checking NOTAMS = pilot error
Not ensuring proper satellite reception (by using external antenna) = pilot error
Not having any backup = pilot error
None of the above can be attributed to a GPS unit. It's the user = pilot.
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In the incident I referred to, the GPS was receiving a good signal, the database was up to date, there was no reason to bring a backup in to service and no suggestion that the notams had not been checked. Everything was working properly, as you would expect from a well maintained G1000 in a brand new SR22.
The problem occured because the pilot was navigating using the moving map display of his GPS but the map was missing a vital piece of information due to a defficiency in it's database. The CAA chart showed all the information but was folded up in his flight bag - presumably because he was following the logic that he would only need to use it if all else fails.
Look, I am not anti-GPS. I use three of the darn things when I fly (One for the logger, one is a basic 12XL with just a GOTO function and one is a PDA with full moving map display). GPS is second to none for determining your current position, true direction and true speed and I agree, much more reliable and accurate than a chart and mk1 eyeball. Navigating (i.e. finding your way) in my opinion can only be done if accurate up-to-date information is available and this is where GPS falls down. Apart from the fact that there are frequent database errors, a GPS moving map in most cases cannot be annotated with supplimentary information such as temporary airspace restrictions and notam'ed activities. Therefore, I believe the safest way to navigate is with a CAA chart, annotated with relevant supplimentary information and a GPS to assist with detrmining current position, direction and speed.
The problem occured because the pilot was navigating using the moving map display of his GPS but the map was missing a vital piece of information due to a defficiency in it's database. The CAA chart showed all the information but was folded up in his flight bag - presumably because he was following the logic that he would only need to use it if all else fails.
Look, I am not anti-GPS. I use three of the darn things when I fly (One for the logger, one is a basic 12XL with just a GOTO function and one is a PDA with full moving map display). GPS is second to none for determining your current position, true direction and true speed and I agree, much more reliable and accurate than a chart and mk1 eyeball. Navigating (i.e. finding your way) in my opinion can only be done if accurate up-to-date information is available and this is where GPS falls down. Apart from the fact that there are frequent database errors, a GPS moving map in most cases cannot be annotated with supplimentary information such as temporary airspace restrictions and notam'ed activities. Therefore, I believe the safest way to navigate is with a CAA chart, annotated with relevant supplimentary information and a GPS to assist with detrmining current position, direction and speed.