What GPS do you use?

[flyguy]

Re: What GPS do you use?

I have a Magellan Meridian and I have noticed that it will track a straight line on a map. That is, the track to somewhere will follow the same track that you draw on a chart with a pencil.
The Garmin GPS III will give a great circle track. Example: from central Calif. to Alabama will take you up over kansas or Nebraska somewhere before it "curves" down. The Meridian doesn't do that.
Now, if you are flying to a place that you can see from 30 miles away you will find the Meriidian will be pointing you to one side or the other of the landmark you can see. Then it will start to curve in about 1/2 way there and finally cross right over your destination.
I think what is going on is your visual sight line is small part of a great circle but because the Meridian is set up to match the normal projections on a map it actually takes you in a curve that is a slightly longer route. I'm always thinking, "Why do I want to go over there, I can see where I'm going and it is this way." At twenty miles it is very noticeable; like several degrees.
Strange the things we take for granted that aren't really the way we think they are.
I normally draw a line on the chart and do pilotage, using the GPS to confirm my pilotage and correct for my compass.
Darryl

[Len Petterson]

Re: What GPS do you use?

Basic skills and equpment.
A older pilot is getting out of a Aronca Chief and a young student pilot look with astonichmet on the panel. No radio, no VOR no ADF, how can you find your way? came the question from a very conserned young man.
Time, speed, distance, what you need to keep track of,for what you need to have a map, kompas and watch and to make calculations easyer a E6B. I travled the world what way, came the answer.
The pilot was Charlie Vaugn, at the time he was delivery and test pilot for DHaviland Canada.
As you may have gatherd , The Gps was nor invented when this happend.
Last week I a seen a student pilot with a Gps in the classroom, doing his crosscountry fligth planning.
I belive he is missing something very important. Practising Basic skills.
Maybe it will be a FAA ruleing what we have to carry 2 set of spare battries for the GPS. 1 set for the FAA Lawyers and 1 set to satisfiy the battery makers lawyers?
Do I have GPS,yes but it quit. Will I bye another.Yes.Then my new mags are payed for. Robbed agin
The GPS system does a god jobb!
Len Petterson

[taylorcraftbc65]

Re: What GPS do you use?

City??!!?? What's a city? The county seat of Hudspeth County has 250 people in it. It's the secomd largest county in Texas, (land area), and has a population of 3,100 people, and a couple hundered thousand free range cattle.
I'm thinking of getting a Garmin for the "five pack" when I fly VFR on top, but right now I use the JRC nav-com which will fly VOR to or from, and has a nice bright CDI on it.
FRIENDS DON"T LET FRIENDS FLY CESSNAS

[VictorBravo]

Re: What GPS do you use?

If you have a mechanical problem, engine failure, low oil pressure, etc... then the LAST thing you want to be doing is F(!*$^ around with your GPS!

Your nearest airport will be plainly visible on your sectional chart. It is either a magenta or navy blue little airport symbol... can't miss it

However, I very strongly recommend using the front and side windows instead of the sectional chart, especially when you have a real problem. The reason for this is that there are approx. 3 to 100 times MORE emergency landing areas than are shown as airports on the chart (depending on your particular area). These emergency strips or landing fields should be visible through the windows and are not visible on the STANDARD charts.

These special areas are visible on the MODIFIED charts that you should be carrying at all times. You mark as many emergency landing areas on your charts as you can. The info is gained from other pilots, your own experience flying over them, but mostly by looking around for emergency strips EVERY SINGLE TIME you get behind the wheel of a car.

All ribbing aside, please take this advice to heart. With a T-craft, there are many more places to land safely than are marked on any chart. Go out and find them, both for fun and for safety. Even in the middle of Los Angeles city where I fly, I have found several places where I can stick the T-craft without hurting myself (or it most of the time). You will not believe how much more fun, less stressful, and more confident your flying will be once you have this kind of knowledge.

Wider than normal sections of road with no wires... golf courses... large parks...construction sites where they will be building 500 houses in a year but are clear now...the strip of grass in between the northbound and southbound lanes of a big interstate highway... the sewage treatment plant that always has one empty basin...the dry river wash...the huge green lawn in front of XYZ corporate headquarters...the dirt road that is usually on the very top edge of a dam...the open "right of way" strip that is underneath big sets of power lines (but that you would have to slide in from the side, under the wires).

The ability to end your flight in a hurry without damage or injury, when you are not near an airport, is the greatest single safety skill you can learn (in my opinion). This skill can overcome a whole bunch of bad luck and bad decisions, allowing you to fly another day. It's a skill no longer taught in flight schools, an no longer commonly practiced (except by us weird glider scum). It has saved my bacon more than once.

[AlvinMcIver]

Re: What GPS do you use?

I love Taylorcrafts. Having said that, I must also say that I earned my pilot's license in gliders. When I went for my SEL "add on", the DE, towards the end of the flight after more than one "failed engine" (which I found out later was the result of my non-plused behavior each time he pulled the power), said, "you don't seem bothered by the loss of an engine", to which I truthfully replied, "this is nothing more than a bad glider with a heavy nose". Fly the aircraft to a controlled contact with the ground -- bean fields, hay fields, pastures (animals are to be avoided), even corn fields and trees if you must (there was an interesting article in Aviation Safety about whether to choose water over trees). If you haven't landed out (off of an airport), you should find a recently mown hay field and a happy farmer and try it - you'll love it (subject to the restrictions in your insurance policy). Those of you in Alaska understand that anywhere there is a reasonably clear area, there is a landing strip.
Oh, I use a Garmin GPS III (NOT GPS Pilot III) principally for compass heading (mine is good, but there doesn't seem to be any compass roses around to swing it), and confirmation of my computations for time to destination for fuel reserves (why not use the tools available to make flying safer). I fly with a sectional in my lap with the course hi-lited for following along --- why else would you fly low and slowwwww but for the scenery. As long as you are looking, why not keep track of where you are. Cross country is a state of mind, and I don't mind it at all; in fact, I love it in a Taylorcraft -- it's boring in a 210 with slaved otto doing the flying -- unless you are listening to Steppenwolf, but then, I can do that at home. Peace and love what you are and who you are with (or, as my wife would say, with whom you are).