I was chatting with an aviation chum the other day about the pros and cons of the various GPS units out there. Due to parkinsonism I no longer fly and learned at a time when GPS for the private pilot was a mere gleam in its inventors eye! A lot of pilots are very sceptical that newbies are relying far too much on GPS systems for navigation, rather than building on the basics (wizz-wheel, maps etc) so that they encounter difficulty when the systems fail.
However, I was soon put right as my friend, who is a learner of this new-school, told me that without the basics the use of GPS is like cooking with a microwave without knowing about flavour, i,e,, it can be done but isn't really worthwhile.
This GPS unit (see the manufacturers spec for full description of what it can do) is, I am told, extremely easy to use with a very user-friendly interface. It has multiple way-points and comes pre-loaded with the Jeppesen database for the country in which it is sold. This allows the user to easily access details of airfields, terrain and obstacles that will be encountered en route.
You can not only use the unit to set a track from home in the car (to get to an airport) you can take it out of the car, put it in the aircraft and call up all the runway information, NDBs etc, that is essential for flight.
The beauty of this particular unit is, I am told, that it is completely versatile and well-featured that it works in the car, on a boat and in the air.
Pricewise they are not too expensive and my friend found theirs on Ebay. The version my friend uses is greyscale but there is a color-scale version out there.
Using the GPS as a beginner pilot, apparently, gives you all the information needed for any point on one screen, rather than having to fold maps and look down all the time. Because the GPS unit is on top of the instrument panel it is possible to maintain a better scan of all instruments and look-out which is vital for flying in the 21st century.
The unit comes with an AC adaptor and battery life is around about 12hrs or so which is sufficient for most needs. There is also a USB cable so you can load flightplan data in to it and upload to a computerised logbook which is great backup functionality for the totally precvious hard copy flight logbook!
So all in all, this would appear to be a good value, hi-tech complement to maps and old-fashioned navigational equipment!
More details
Ease of Use
Very easy
Ease of Installation
Very easy to install
Reliability
Very Reliable
Design & Look
Good
Value for Money
Good value for money
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