Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: spitfiremkv on February 25, 2005, 09:17:33 PM
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I'm thinking of buying maybe a Garmin Gekko or Magellan, somethung under 200, hopefully one that has mapping capabilities.
Can it be used for aerial navigation ?
I think that a non-mapping unit can be used by inputting the coordinates of your checkpoints from your VFR flight. In theGPS, they become waypoints and if you get lost you can just head over to the next waypoint.
But this is just theoretical...
A mapping one, on the cheaper range,I don't know if it displays enough detail to help u with navigation.
anybody here has any advice?
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The only thing, you'll need external antenna. Better to have 2 antennas. One connected and one disconnected. And a good place, were you'll see it. Also think about external DC.
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Flew around with a non-av Magellan in my PT-19. It had enough of a map for VFR open cockpit flying.
Plus, if you have the AOPA guide, you can put the lat/long of where you're going in the memory.
Yeah, it was useful.
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Originally posted by spitfiremkv
Can it be used for aerial navigation ?
Legally...no.
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If I recall, a good many of those, especially in NMEA 0183 mode will go "tilt" if you are going faster than 99 knots.
Maybe they fixed that :)
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Most GPSes haven't had that speed lockout for years. Read on usenet, people will talk about using their GPSs on commercial flights. Might be worth looking up the models you're interested in on Google Groups to see if this is the case.
I have a Garmin GPS III+ that I've had for years that's in my flight bag, and I'll use it for backup once I have my license. I know it will work because I've used it on commercial flights.
Another cool thing, a friend of mine showed me a webpage that you can use to generate a series of waypoints to load into your Garmin of aviation waypoints/VORs/etc. It goes a long way towards making your garmin more effective for use in flight. I'll find the link and post it if anyone is interested.
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wait can't you load the waypoints in manually?
I've seen Garmin IIIs on Ebay for $50
Is it better to get a used one like that vs a new Gekko?
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Originally posted by Chairboy
Most GPSes haven't had that speed lockout for years. Read on usenet, people will talk about using their GPSs on commercial flights.
I've used a Garmin eTrex Legend on commercial flights. No speed lockout at all.
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Any GPS can be legally used in an aircraft for "situational awareness", meaning you can use it for information but it can't be your sole means of navigation if you're doing something that requires specific equipment (like operating in class A airspace or shooting an approach).
Many generic/cheap GPS devices include an airport database, so even though they're not certified for aviation navigation use, they can provide valuable data. Don't worry too much about multiple antennas. Just put the sucker up on the glareshield and it will work just fine. Flying the T-37, until my squadron bought a couple of handheld aviation-oriented GPS devices (not nav certified but they had full aviation databases including navaids and airports), I'd often borrow a friend's gps. It made for a nice nav backup gadget in case something broke.
One trick we used was to use the gps course to our destination to "cut the corner" when we were flying VOR routes. Because you can't receive most VORs more than 60-90 miles or so depending on altitude and station strength, and our gps wasn't certified for navigation, our only official navigation method was to fly VOR to VOR which often wasn't anywhere near a straight line towards the destination. If we had a GPS however, we could simply ask the controller if we could fly the heading listed on the GPS until we could legally fly direct to our destination. It would go something like "Skull 41 request heading 110 then direct college station". They'd usually say yes, so we'd use the course from the gps and fly that until we could pick up the VOR at our destination. At that point, we'd use the VOR to fly direct until we started our normal arrival procedures. Sometimes we could cut 40 miles or more off of our route by doing this, and that meant more practice approaches at the destination or arriving with more fuel in case we had to divert or go missed approach due to weather or some other reason. When going on instructor continuity training cross country flights, this was a great tool for adding more of a fuel pad when stretching near our max range.
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Originally posted by Toad
Flew around with a non-av Magellan in my PT-19. It had enough of a map for VFR open cockpit flying.
Plus, if you have the AOPA guide, you can put the lat/long of where you're going in the memory.
Yeah, it was useful.
You need a map open cockpit?
I though it was just goggles for you guys.
As far as I can tell, no open cockpit planes are for rent anywhere near me. Flying in one fo those planes sounds like some serious fun.
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http://www.anywheremap.com
I've had mine for more then 2 years. Upgraded to the IPAQ hx4700 recently. Has saved enough in gas to pay for itself manytimes over and it helps when passengers know where they are at all times. Plus you don't need to justify its expense as an aviation only item when you use it for email and ICQ too.
Wolf(http://www.anywheremap.com/images/AWM4700.jpg)
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I used e-Trex. Without map. Just predefined points. The problems was to get external DC and to place antennas. At all it works perfect. Sure it wasn't "oficial" system but very helpfull.