CAA - Pilot's Guide to GPS

[BEagle]

The CAA has just produced a DVD entitled Pilot's Guide to GPS, but it can also be viewed at CAA - Pilot's Guide to GPS

It would be interesting to hear the views on this by the experienced GPS gurus on this website.....

[gasax]

Thank God these people were not around during WWII - new fangled systems like Oboe would never have been developed -and bombing accuracy would have remained 'nearest county'.

Despair.........................

[liam548]

I must admit I ordered a DVD copy and thought it was aimed at someone who has never heard of GPS..

[tmmorris]

I like the idea that a GPS which has the latest database update (i.e 28 day AIRAC cycle) might not be as up to date with airspace changes as a chart which is printed once a year.

Doh!

Tim

[Captain Smithy]

Well, perhaps it's useful for beginners who have no GPS experience, folk like me for example. I had a look at some of the pages and thought it was quite helpful.

[gasax]

It spends far too long stating what might be wrong with GPS (but which is almost never the case).

As to practically using it for planning a route, monitoring airborne wind, time enroute and to go, picking sensible waypoints, using the internal databases, real route planning, i.e producing a PLOG from your planned route - almost nothing. Nothing about obvious 'sense checks' you can make to ensure your routing is correct and the thing is actually working.

And the user waypoints might be wrong!!!

[SkyHawk-N]

Thanks for the heads-up on this BEagle. I just received my Garmin 696 (with XMWeather subscription ) and this is just what I need to get the most out of using it.

[Molesworth 1]

It goes without saying that any method of navigation other than that taught in the PPL syllabus must be suspect! Following railway lines and such - what foolishness! There's no telling - there may be leaves on the line.

[Lister Noble]

I started using GPS for navigation on sailing boats over 20 years ago,before that Decca,and Loran was still being used.
I always plotted postions on chart every hour or less inshore or in busy shipping lanes,and cross checked both ways chart-GPS.
The last boat had a chart plotter in 1990,ie glass cockpit linked to radar and autopilot.
Why has it taken so long for GA to catch up?
The advice to not rely soley on an electronic device is,I believe,sensible.
Use the GPS but update the chart as you go.
Lister

[Molesworth 1]

I learned the hard way about relying solely on GPS when the battery died suddenly! In any case straight line GPS is as boring to fly as Dead Reckoning - i.e. dead boring. I prefer to fly by identifying and tracking ground features. I fly not to get from A to B but for the experience and the freedom of flying where I want.