How do you navigate?

steve-gill · Post by **steve-gill** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:34 pm

With the XC season nearly upon us, I was just wondering how everyone navigates.
I use the old fashioned folded airmap, whichis great for the smaller XC, but a bit of a pain if you fly off the end of the fold.
With all these intergrated vario/gps units available now, are there any that can store airmaps, or do you have to get a separate gps unit to do this? If so which one do you use, and can you update maps easily/cheaply?

brian day · Post by **brian day** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:43 am

iPhone with memorymap installed.

The fancy gps varios do support airspace, but it isn't very good. I think you need a separate gps.
I think Dave Horn put a link on to a a good mapping device for £145 which gave audio and visual warning. Looked very good to me, I would like to see one.

John Wallis · Post by **John Wallis** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:58 am

http://www.northern-paragliding.com/onl ... op.flypage

You interested in buying one of these Steve got full UK maps on. I prefer CAA charts with a line drawn on make me an offer

JW

Post by **chrisfozz** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:07 pm

I'm still using garmin 76c with airspace from http://ukgarminairmap.wikispaces.com/ (these are free)
and European Metroguide map from garmin which is good for retrieve directions.

brian day · Post by **brian day** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 1:43 pm

Chris, have you worked out how to get the airspace maps on the garmin, always seems a bit of a nightmare to me?

Post by **chrisfozz** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 5:27 pm

The tricky part is setting up Mapsource on your PC with the airspace charts, it requires a change to the registry which is ok if you know what to do. There are some instructions on the above website.
An easier option is to give your unit to me and I'll stick them on or if you've got a 76"X" ie one with a micro sd card I could get you a card with the maps on.

ron freeman · Post by **ron freeman** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:35 pm

Steve, I fly with a Garmin 76c (coloured maps) and its brilliant but we still need to have and up to date airchart on board for XC's...

Up to date Aircharts ! the 'Royal Aero club' Newcastle airport.

Drive past the club house (heading west) there is a shop a few hundred yards on the right (15 quid aprox)

Dave Hume · Post by **Dave Hume** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 3:42 pm

Have a look at:

http://www.airspaceaware.com/products/awareshop/

The basic unit is a full colour moving map GPS using CAA air charts for 150 quid which is an absolute bargain. My brother has just got one of these and it's absolutely brilliant for the money.

brian day · Post by **brian day** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 6:15 pm

That's the unit I was talking about Dave, would love to see one, can you pinch it from your brother for a couple of days?
New maps are on a free upgrade, but there seems to be an issue with battery life, has your brother tested battery life yet?

Dave Hume · Post by **Dave Hume** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 9:09 am

brian day wrote:That's the unit I was talking about Dave, would love to see one, can you pinch it from your brother for a couple of days?
New maps are on a free upgrade, but there seems to be an issue with battery life, has your brother tested battery life yet?

Hi Brian

Quoted battery life is about an hour, but for about 25 quid you can get a power monkey which is pretty small and light and will plug in to give you another 5 hours. That should be enough. Don't think I'll get it off him for a couple of days but I'll try and borrow it to bring along to the meeting tomorrow night.

Dave

Dave Hume · Post by **Dave Hume** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 1:05 pm

Do any of the fancy all singing, all dancing all-in-one vario gps devices display airspace? Or do you have to carry a second GPS in order to avoid airspace, or indeed a big old fashioned paper map with the associated problems of folding or running off the end? I know the unit Steve just bought will do loads of fancy stuff like relocating a thermal and finding the strongest core but won't help you avoid airspace on an XC. Sounds like they've got the feature list a bit back to front, all these aids to help you go over the back but avoiding airspace is given the lowest priority.