GPS

[recon]

Thanks for the heads up, I found the thread and will look into it to see if anything has changed since then. Does anyone know if the lowrance airmap 500 comes with detailed canadian maps?

[LT]

:drool:

http://www.garmin.com/products/gns530/

Or the MX20..

[recon]

Thats all handy dandy but Im looking for a hand held.

[snoopy]

Recon, yes it does, but that as I recall was the problem with it. It took something like 10 cartridges at $2-300 ea. to cover all of Canada. The Garmin 195 has two detail cartridges for Canada; East and West for around $300 ea. Not sure if the GPS III pilot has detail cartridges.
Cheers,
Snoopy

[KAG]

Hey recon, nice work getting on with BAR XH. I used to work for them in YYC. that could lead to a flying gig if you keep your nose clean.

As for the GPS, I wouldn't bother untill your ready to fly on that first job (assumeing it's not BAR XH, all there machines have GPS). Most of us got along just fine just by map reading, and it is a skill that you will lose if not practiced.
If your still interested I would look on Ebay. A friend bought a KLN 90B (I know its not a hand held) for $1000.00 USD!!!!!
came with mounting brackets, all antennas, and it works great.


Cheers.

[onceacop]

I have a Garmin III plus which is the non aviation model. I can run 24 hours on 4 AA batteries and remove the unit for hunting and fishing or for survival. I have over 50000 miles on the trip log since I bought it. It instantley tells me time to destination and with the moving map, it permits me to fly in minimums where looking forward instead of map reading seems prudent. I use the GPS unit as one more tool for flight planning. I also read maps enroute. On Ebay you can buy the Garmin III's in either Aviation or ground format for under $300. The moving map in my opinion is indispensible but I fly in bad weather sometimes. On cross-country trips and flying unfamiliar terriotory I wouldn't leave home without it. GPS isn't a substitute for basic pilotage and planning but it is an available tool that has yet to let me down in 1000 hours of flying. Additionaly, the Garmin III with it's stubby attenae has not once lost sattelite signal mounted on a RAM ball mount above the panel in my Scout or Champ.

[The Dude]

Recon, I got the airmap 500 about a month ago. The Canadian maps are terrible, no detail besides the coast, large lakes and rivers and some major terrain obstructions. The unit comes with Freedom maps CD-ROM, you can built and transfer more detailed maps to you airmap with it. In Canada you get major roads and highways and city names, that's it! In some places such as Vancouver If you try to zoom in past 15nm you loose all detail, even the coast line, so the freedom maps may be useless to you if you want detailed maps. Oh and if you go to YAZ runway 07-25 is missing from the runway extension display. They are supposed to come out with with a fix for Canadian maps but there is no eta. Besides the map issues the unit is a great backup for x-c navigation to unfamiliar places, specially at night.

[N2]

Dude I bought the Airmap 1000 and was disappointed too in the coverage of Canada. Lowrance kept telling me that they were going to release the Canadian software "some time in the next few weeks" that was about 3 or 4 months ago. Do yourself a favour folks and stick with Garmin!

[The Dude]

N2 how are the Garmin maps? I Had heard that their Canadian maps are just as bad. I looked at the 196, it was a bit more than what I wanted to spend. Maybe I'll save and one day get the 296, it looks pretty sweet.

[N2]

Dude, I found the Garmin mapping to be a little better right out of the box but still they also lack real detail. Mapping software for the Garmin I found easier to obtain than the Lowrance.

[recon]

For those of you with a lowrance unit, have you used the map create canada software? How are the maps in that?