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gps off topic a little

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p.mulwitz(at)worldnet.att
Guest

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:56 am Post subject: gps off topic a little

Hi John,



I just bought my third GPS.  It is a Nuvi 200 from Garmin.  I love it 

since it actually works well in my car.



My second one was a Lowrance GPSmap 350 (or something close to 

that).  It was a horrible machine.  I returned 3 or 4 of them because 

they kept dying.  If you put one on your dashboard it would overheat 

and the power supply would die.  If you put it lower down inside the 

dashboard console then it would run but couldn't find enough 

satellites to navigate.  There was no external antenna.



My first was a Lowrance Airmap 500. This works great in an airplane 

and reasonably well in a car.  It is limited by the small black and 

white display and a bit difficult to set up for car use.



The real differences I have found from one GPS to another are how 

well the device actually acquires and keeps satellites and how good 

the database is.



I think you will get a lot more utility out of a low end air GPS for 

flying than trying to use a ground based design of any quality.  The 

air database includes things like Class B, C, and D airspace along 

with frequencies to contact the controlling authority.  It has all 

the airports displayed and can find any airport or VOR (maybe) just 

by its 3 or 4 letter code.  The air GPSs seem to all have a faked 

instrument panel which would actually be very useful for navigating 

your plane if your primary instruments go south.  None of these 

wonderful features would be found in a ground based unit.



One more comment - to get much use out of any GPS in the air you must 

learn to work the complex button sequences.  This can be very 

difficult while also trying to fly your plane.  To make it even worse 

by trying to use a device oriented toward cars or boats instead of 

one carefully optimized for air use would add a great deal to the workload.



My own plans were to get a high end Lowrance air GPS for my plane, 

but after the problems with the ground based one I am thinking 

seriously of changing to a Garmin.  At least in the auto GPS domain 

the Garmin functions so much better than the Lowrance that I think it 

worth the outrageous price.



Good luck,



Paul

XL fuselage

At 06:50 AM 7/4/2007, you wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		  hi list

i saw an ad for a portable gps system for an

automobile.  it has all the bells and whistles for

ground use, and i wondered if any of you people have

used one in the air. if so, was it of any value.  i

will have a gps for my machine but was just wondering

if the portable auto type gave enough info to make it

worth taking along on a flight.  it will at least give

the addresses of places to stay and eat on a X-country

john butterfield

XL, corvair

torrance, ca

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larry(at)macsmachine.com
Guest

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:59 am Post subject: gps off topic a little

Hi John,

The aircraft GPS used is probably a better way to go, but an auto GPS

could provide what you need if you have an AOPA Airport Directory.  This 

paper bound

aid provides all phone numbers, fuel, frequencies, coordinate data and 

runway info, etc for all airports and

for the price would allow you time to eventually upgrade to a Lowrance-500

or equal.  I sold a Lowrance-100 a year or so ago for less than you'd 

pay for

an automotive GPS, so keep an eye out.



Larry McFarland  601HDS at www.macsmachine.com



john butterfield wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		   



 hi list

 i saw an ad for a portable gps system for an

 automobile.  it has all the bells and whistles for

 ground use, and i wondered if any of you people have

 used one in the air. if so, was it of any value.  i

 will have a gps for my machine but was just wondering

 if the portable auto type gave enough info to make it

 worth taking along on a flight.  it will at least give

 the addresses of places to stay and eat on a X-country

 john butterfield

 XL, corvair 

 torrance, ca

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stol701(at)yahoo.com
Guest

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 11:30 am Post subject: gps off topic a little

That would work fine until you try and fly in an area w/ lots of restricted airspace. I live in Southern New Mexico and would not fly without my airmap 2000.

 Rob

 ---

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