Which GPS should I buy?

[TheOddOne]

I've just bought the Garmin GPSMAP 96 monochrome version after 23 years of using map, compass & stopwatch. I used it for the first time on Monday for a 3-leg 50nm trip having already done the flight plan on the map and kneeboard. I'm still feeling my way with it. I really don't see me ever being able to just put a route into it, then just follow the GPS, so it will, for me, only ever be a backup and an indication of how close I am to controlled airspace etc. I know of people who seem to just jump in, no map, fire up the GPS and find their way in all weathers, but I can't see myself doing that!

The 96 fits on the yoke on a PA28 nicely and is easily readable in daylight without the backlight on. There seem to be plenty of satellites penetrate to the unit without an external aerial. The bottons are easy to use even with gloves on.

I've tried it in the car, too, and all I can say is that I've been able to calibrate the speedometer more accurately, pretty useless with the basic aviation map for road use.

I'll persevere with it during the summer, but at over £300 for a base model I could have done another 4 hours flying with the money. Maybe one day I'll be thankful that I've made the investment.

I tried reading the handbook but I still don't feel confident that I know how to use it properly. I tried out the 'go to' function a few times as that's probably what I feel I'd get benefit from most in an emergency, but I found I had to search from basics for locations, a bit time-consuming and fiddly if you had a problem. I also found I was 'head-in' for a lot longer than I like, not good when you're traversing between the LHR, LTN & STN zones! I knew where I was, but not what I might have collided with!

I think I'd like to do a few flights as a pax to get to play with it properly in the air to get the hang of it - perhaps it's just my aged brain that's too set in its ways to take to it quickly.

Cheers,

The Odd One

[Captainkarl]

thanks

Ha ha! Now I have a use for my disused IPAQ 1910! For flight sim! and maybe a GPS!! Jabberwok could you explain what you did to get Pocket FMS

"It was not all plain sailing though. It took some time to get Pocket FMS working properly - this involved a Registry tweak to get it to lock onto the GPS receiver."

It seems confusing but if I can get it to work it would be like a FREE GPS unit to me!lol

Thanks

[jabberwok]

Most of the setup for the PDA is described here with links included to the software needed - GPSOut for FS and PocketFMS.



I have included the settings I used but they may not be universal. I checked some aviation forums and the PFMS forum first and found that users reported various combinations that would work. Trial and error got me the one that fitted my own kit.

The O/S of the PDA is important as I think PocketFMS is only for Win2003 at the moment - I think a Palm version is being worked on.

[Deano777]

Guys thanks for the replies
I havent really got a budget in mind, Im not "too" concerned with the PDA screen being a little dark in sunlight as I will always use the ol' plog & stopwatch, I guess I dont really know why I want one, I just feel the need to get one I just got a promotion at work so I feel like treating myself (shh dont tell the wife) and thought I may as well combine the 2.
Thanks for the replies anyway, it's given me something to work with, any other comments / suggestions feel free to fire away

Rgds

Dean

[S-Works]

Garmin 296 and auto pack as stated above is suberb. Clear and easy to use and readable in any light. Great battery life, and even audible turn by turn directions. It is better than the built in GPS in my car.

[Fuji Abound]

IMHO for road use there is no substitute for TomTom Navigator on a PDA. The voice commands are excellent as is the map particularly in 3D mode. Third party software to enable the inclusion of speed radar cameras for example is also very useful.

For the plane the decision is much more difficult. There are a few packages around like FMS. The problem is they provide little more than a moving map as useful as that can be. The downside is that they are quite difficult to actually use in the air if your detail is changing or perhaps in IMC when you don’t want to be fiddling with the interface. I personally reckon that Anywhere in terms of its concept is by far and away the best product because it is really simple to change destinations or weigh points en route, display extended centerlines so useful for accurate positioning in marginal weather and a host of other easy to use features. The downside is they have not up dated the eastern database for sometime (it is an American product) which is a great shame because otherwise it would be perfect. In fact this is not the end of the world and I still find it is the easiest of the PDA aviation products to use.

I have found the TomTom bluetooth receiver excellent for its rapid acquisition time and ability to pick up satellites even when the receiver is shielded. The absence of cables is also a real bonus.

In my view other than for occasional use any pda really needs to have some means of connecting to mains battery. The battery life is not great and if you start to “rely” on the system you will find when you get to your destination you have inadvertently left either the receiver or PDA switched on so that by the time you are ready to return home the batteries are flat!

[grow45]

Does anybody have any experience with the new Garmin Iqe 3600a (the one with the dedicated aviation cradle) which seems the ideal solution for somebody who does not have either a GPS or a PDA and is in the market for both.

g45

[Footless Halls]

I've always been a "map 'n' stopwatch" kind of navigator, but after a couple of nasty experiences decided I must carry a gps as a backup.

having been an 'early adopter' of pda's I looked very carefully at the Tom Tom/Pocket FMS concept.

Thing is, the times in the cockpit when you REALLY need a gps is when the workload is high and your attention on the gps itself is low.

I decided against the pda route in the end as I felt (feel) that pda's are just not robust enough.

In the end I decided on a Garmin 196. OK, so it's not colour, but it's very robust and well-designed. it takes a bit of getting used to, but a couple of trips as P2/nav will help you get experience. And you are ALWAYS going to use it as backup to your PLOG so you can build up experience with it as you fly.

I've used it on the road & I find it fine for that too, though I'm happy to compromise my road nav rather than aviation nav as I'm less bothered by the road stuff.

[JetMouse]

GPS Question?

I'm currently looking at a GPS as a back up to the PLOG. One question I have is about the maps built into the GPS. It seems people like Garmin expect you to pay about £30-£40 a month to download a new map.

For those of you who have a GPS do you actually do this? Is it that necessary? Your thoughts please...

Thanks
JM

[Mike Cross]

I have a Garmin 196 and find it excellent apart from one annoying fault. It seems the natural frequency of vibration of the mighty C85 on the Luscombe concides with that of the batteries and they vibrate. A momentary loss of connection is the result which makes the thing power down. Others have had the same problem. The remedy I use is some strips of foam draught excluder stuck on the inside of the battery cover to help stop them vibrating.

The onboard database has a lot of information in it, some of it, like frequencies and airspace, is subject to change, other parts like the location of airfields and towns is not.

Needless to say I don't use it to the exclusion of the chart so I rely on keeping the chart up to date and watching NOTAM. It's backed up by NavBox Pro, for which I do subscribe to the update service so my frequency lists and airspace are up to date when I am planning.

The 196 comes with one free update and I haven't felt the need to update since. I have however updated the system software a couple of times from the Garmin website. Watch out though because the update process is likely to wipe out all of your personal waypoints and stored routes.

CAA Chart Updates available here.

Mike

[DRJAD]

I have a GPS IIIP at present, and have had the unit for about two years.

In that time, I've updated the software once, and the database 4 times.

Always cross check with CAA VFR and Aerad IFR charts, and NOTAMS, after setting a route to fly. Seems to work.

[Three Blades]

If you are looking for simply a back up to your PLOG rather than a more complex system then even the simplest GPS will work well.
A Garmin Geko or eTrex can easily be loaded with waypoint and route dtat from a PC and can be used to keep you on track. Whilst it will not show you airspace and lots of pretty pictures, it only costs £100.
Now if you want to have GPS as an (unofficial) primary navigation aid then that is totally another question and another price.

[GroundBound]

The Garmins (and I suspect other manufacturers) are supplied with a Jeppeson database of aeronautical information, which is more or less current at the time of production (with 1 free update on purchase). This provides airports, runways, frequencies, navigation aids, airspace volumes etc. for a given area (e.g. Atlantic area = Europe and Africa).

However, the aeronautical data is subject to change every month according to the AIRAC cycle, so after one month some of the aeonautical data in your GPS is out of date, and you are probably missing some new data.

You can buy monthly updates from Jeppeson, through the Garmin site for around $40 a month, or a 13 month susbscription for +/- $300.

Whether you need to do this or not is a matter of choice - how much money do you have, what do you want the GPS aeronautical data for, and what has changed in your most-likely flying areas that you need to be updated in your GPS? Getting updates because of changes to ILS frequencies in Angola is maybe not the best of reasons. However, if the Birmingham TMA and CTRs have changed significiantly that might justify an update.

The "VFR GPS" aeronautical data, especially if not updated, should not be your first port of call for aeronautical information such as nav. aids, frequencies and controlled airspace. You can cross check your PLOG and the GPS to see if the aeronautical data corresponds.

If your current database properly reflects the area you are planning to fly in, then there should be no problem.

I took out a 13 month subscription but then decided it was too expensive. Now I update about 2 or 3 times a year (= 1 hour of flying).

(edited to add that nav. aid locations don't usually change much from month to month - however, airport frequencies can be more variable).

GB

[IO540]

This is one of the daft conflicts which presumably we have to live with.

From our training, we are supposed to use PRINTED charts for flight planning.

(Legally this isn't the case; the requirements tend to be phrased as "suitable" rather than "printed".)

Not because they are up to date (they hardly can be, being published once a year, or less often for many areas) but because they are "official". Why are they official? Perhaps it's tradition, but also there are not a few fingers in the map copyright gravy train!

On the other hand, one can buy software charts like e.g. Jeppesen FliteStar/FliteMap (some £500 for all of Europe, plus as much again every year for the 2-weekly update service - a comparable cost to buying the equivalent printed charts) and these will be a lot more up to date than anything that's printed.

Same goes for the databases in physical GPS units. Because there are no GPS approaches around here, there is no legal requirement to update the database. But if someone does, say every 6 months, they SHOULD have a more up to date database than anything one can buy.

The trouble is that anything other than printed charts (and SIA ones in France) is not going to count for much if one busts some airspace.

The other thing is that with a "VFR" GPS (basically any handheld unit) the vendor has no incentive to fix errors because they can always wash their hands of a problem, on the grounds that it is for supplementary nav only.

Even more strangely, the GPS Jepp database has things missing, which aren't missing from the GPS Jepp printed data (or the electronic data in FliteStar). E.g. airways are shown as just a line in the GPS databases whereas they are properly shown in the latter data. THAT is the main argument for having either the printed charts or the FliteStar electronic ones. (One can also print chart sections from the latter and this is how a lot of people completely avoid purchasing printed charts).

[Onan the Clumsy]

I updated my 295 once - about three years ago. I got the disk of ebay - a real one, not a knock off which made it a little cheaper.

It's a great unit but I don't use it for the info (that's a PITA to get to anyway) I just use it for speed, heading etc and the maps to see if I'm busting Bravo airspace. If they ever change, then I'll update the database.

It's a backup really. If I was in IFR, I'd have it updated regularly. (ok, and it'd be a 430 anyway)

[Johnm]

My wee pilot III has always had its software up to date and a dtatbase update spring and autumn. Seems to work OK, but I don't rely on frequencies etc. just the geography.

[air18150]

which £500 gps?

The choice seems to be between a skymap 2 and a garmin 196. The unit will be panel mounted with power and antenea. I have used the skymap on a few occasions and found it very good but hard to see in direct sunlight - it is a little bulky for the space available but would squeeze in. The 196 is smaller I know but I wonder how the `greyscale` display stands up in varying light conditions. Are there any other considerations I need to make ?
Thanks..

[bar shaker]

The 196 greyscale works very well and the unit is backlight too, so is readable in all but the strongest reflective sunlight.

[Choppersquad]

what gps to purchase

guys
about to purchase a gps for a jetranger
private flying only.

a couple of suggestions are a skyforce 111 or a garmin 296
if agreed which one is the best and why.

thanks in advance
choppersquad.

[Aesir]

Do you have to buy an aviation GPS?

I use a Garmin 182c in our JetRanger installed as loose equipment.

It´s really excellent with a very detailed map and very good to use for seismic work, which we use it a lot for.

It has the "Road in the sky" feature which is excellent when you have to fly search patterns for measurement work and also good to get between A to B.

We hook it up to our Laptop to download & upload tracks and waypoints or to use while flying with a laptop PC.

I absolutely love it and it only costs about $1000.-