GPS

Thanks

Guys,

Thanks all for your contributions it has been super helpful!

You won’t find a big difference in price.
Have a look at:
Harry Mendelssohn, AFE, Adams Direct, Flightstore, Pilot Warehouse…..

And then there’s Ebay (just sold my old 196 there)

There are some neat tricks you can do with cheap units like the Navigo, that use a Windows CE operating system, and scanned maps or open source software. You need to be good with computers though.

Thanks for your comments very insightful. Yes the primary use of my GPS will be to back up my traditional NAV and not the other way. I will let you know what I go for ….

While we are on the topic any ideas where to buy one. Are there any websites I should look out for. Currently I only seem to use Transair but would be nice if I had some other place to get a balaned view on costs…

No simple answer, but some points to consider.

Can you position it so that wires don’t interfere with anything, it gets a good signal (i.e the aerial has a good view of the sky) and you can read it easily?

If it has a moving map, does it easily translate to the map features on your chart? An aeronautical database helps a lot in that respect.

Can it use external power or has it the battery capacity for a day’s flying? Changing batteries in flight is an unwelcome distraction.

Is it easy to program a route and destination and does it then give good navigation guidance? i.e Off-track error, track required, track made good, time and distance to waypoint are all easily interpreted.

Bigger displays are easier to use, but may be more cumbersome.

I use a 296 with a permanently mounted bracket and external power and aerial connections. This works very well for me and the screen is only a bit difficult to read when in very bright sunlight and wearing sunglasses. Even then it is still usable.

Colour does help to assimilate the detail – airspace boundaries etc. but isn’t essential.

The declutter function is useful, have the minimum detail to give a good position fix.

The Garmin units are rightly very popular and do a good job, although almost any GPS if set up and used sensibly will be adequate.

My first GPS was a Sony Pixis about 15 years ago, with a 2 line display and 4-channel receiver, and even that was a revelation in nav capability compared to panel mount VOR/ADF (which I didn’t have anyway).

I’ll agree with Moggy about the Garmin Pilot 111, great little unit. The screen is a bit small but if you have younger eyes it will be OK. The colour one’s are overated, I have a Pilot 111, 196 and a 296 the 296 is harder to read in the bright sunlight, although that might not be a problem in old blighty! as you get older your sight fades and the smaller screens are harder to see, I don’t mind wearing the glasses it’s the hairy palms I can’t handle. 😀

Always a hard question to answer if you haven’t tried every model.

I use just about the most basic GPS you can get, the Garmin Pilot 111. Not available new any more, but plenty around.

The good things using it to verify conventional nav rather than as prime means of nvigation are the small size, so fits almost anywhere on or around the panel, and the HSI display, which gives you a simulated VOR display so that to keep on track you simply keep the needle centred. (This for the entire route, not just where real VORs exist)

This relies, of course, on your having planned the route by conventional means first.

On that topic a word for Navbox Pro. A super, inexpensive bit of software that allows you to sit at your PC planning millions of ‘what if’ routes very simply, then squirt it into the Pilot 111 when you have decided the one (s) you want uploaded. Makes planning simple as can be and enables you to print out plogs and frequency lists at the push of a button.

The downside of the combination is that the little mono moving map view on the 111 is a bit small and cluttered to be really useful, but then again battery life is much better than on a colour screen.

Moggy

DME,

Try HERE

It must be ProPlan, the cheaper one doesn’t squirt. I have no connection to the company, but they are jolly nice chaps

Moggy

Indeed you do. But a road-based base map probably doesn’t feature (say) Old Buckenham airfield, so you’ll end up waypointing the nearby village which will endear you to no-one.

What I did think after your post was that it is almost certainly worth your while investing in a copy of Navbox ProPlan. This is software for your PC that features an aviation map and database. You could plan the routes etc on your PC then (providing the download link works the same as it does for the Pilot) simply squirt the route, waypoints and all into the GPS.

Even if it doesn’t with work with the non-Pilot version, you WILL need it when you’ve got an aviation version. It saves hours in the planning and opens up all sorts of routeing opportunities that you tend to miss with map and chinagraph.

Moggy

Moggy C ,

Cheers for the info. Any idea how much the Navbox ProPlan is? I’ll probably get a copy of that, try it with the GPS Plus and if it does not work ditch it and get the Pilot.

Cheers again

DME

With the Pilot do you just point over the area and then click thus meaning it’s added as a way point?
DME

Indeed you do. But a road-based base map probably doesn’t feature (say) Old Buckenham airfield, so you’ll end up waypointing the nearby village which will endear you to no-one.

What I did think after your post was that it is almost certainly worth your while investing in a copy of Navbox ProPlan. This is software for your PC that features an aviation map and database. You could plan the routes etc on your PC then (providing the download link works the same as it does for the Pilot) simply squirt the route, waypoints and all into the GPS.

Even if it doesn’t with work with the non-Pilot version, you WILL need it when you’ve got an aviation version. It saves hours in the planning and opens up all sorts of routeing opportunities that you tend to miss with map and chinagraph.

Moggy

Moggy C said

You cannot add the Garmin Aviation base map to a non-Pilot III. This means that you will have to eneter all the waypoints for any journey manually. Not worth the hassle. 🙁

With the Pilot do you just point over the area and then click thus meaning it’s added as a way point?

Cheers for the info

DME

I’m afraid that was a mistake.

Stick it back on E-Bay and hope you can get out without taking too much of a hit. In fact write a really nice ad for it and be clever with your categories you might make a profit.

You cannot add the Garmin Aviation base map to a non-Pilot III. This means that you will have to eneter all the waypoints for any journey manually. Not worth the hassle.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. 🙁

Moggy