Re: Handheld GPS: Lowrance Airmap 600C

Sort of off topic... (sorry)

Today was the first time I flew a plane that had GPS... I have joined a club that has three planes, where the members are owners.. They have the Garmin gns430 (http://www.garmin.com/products/gns430) with the Garmin audio panel and the Garmin Transponder that gets the traffic information from the FAA, which information was "unavailable" today as SEA is trying to turn off the "Mode S" stuff... After having done all my training and recently my private pilot checkride in a non-GPS airplane, I just have this to say... "Wow!!!! Really Cool!!! and HOLY $%^@!!!!! this thing is complicated and does a lot..." If you want something to keep you from looking outside the airplane, get one of these things... :-) I can see it takes a bit to get used to futzing with that thing and flying and looking out the windows at the same time, and can see why they have a simulator for you to sit and learn how this things works. :-) This thing tells you the frequencies of the airport your headed to plus allows you to select frequencies from that page and set them to "standby" on the radio, and a bunch of other stuff that i can't name. I can see why everyone likes GPS now... Before I was kind of like " I have my VOR, my ADF, I have my chart, what else do I need, I am good to go!" I also do realize you need to keep up your pilotage/dead reckoning skills, and you shouldn't solely depend on GPS, because like other things in the airplane, there could be times that it doesn't work... :-) But, just way cool. :-)

Wade Hasbrouck
PP-ASEL
Proud 1/60th owner of N80847, N1538V, and N5996J


"P S" <mistersky@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1155785865.926364.240760@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sorry for being dense, but what is the VNAV ?

I have never used a GPS in the air, it will take a while to know which
features
are really really important and which ones are not as critical. Esp if
it is not
used as the main navigation tool. I hope Lorwrance will have figured
out
how to add the missing features in a year or two.

I think I probably won't even turn on the GPS, unless flying in night
time. When the unit will be turned on with a moving map display, and
put
inside the flight bag in the right seat. At least that is how I imagine
I will
use it in the immediate future:-).

Thanks a lot for the information.


John Bell wrote:
I have a 600C, Garmin III Pilot, Garmin 196, and a couple of non-aviation
units. In general, I think that Garmin produces a more refined product.
However, Lowrance offers a lot for the money and is definitely worth
considering. I might do a little more detailed write up for my website,
www.cockpitgps.com, but I have a couple of quick observations below. Many
of these do not apply to you as a student pilot and I think that it would be
hard to go wrong with the 600C.

John Bell


The screen on the 600C is far superior to the Garmin 96 and 96c.

Unless the terrain guidance is used for something stupid like trying to play
F-111 with a handheld GPS instead of terrain following radar, I think that
it can be a tremendous safety enhancement. The fact that Lowrance offers
terrain in a $500 unit is impressive.

The 600c is pretty good on batteries. I find that I get a good 6 hours on
two cheap Costco AA batteries even with the back light on. I believe that
the screen technology is different from the 2000C which might account for
much of this difference.

The VNAV is far superior on the Garmin GPS receivers.

The newer Garmin handhelds offer a selection of IFR approaches. It's not
the whole approach, but the final segment. The Lowrance receivers only
offer an extended runway centerline.

The Garmin receivers can use the aviation in mode and be linked to an IFR
GPS so that the route and active waypoint are synchronized.

The Garmin screen can be customized as to what it displays by zoom level.
The Lowrance screen is also customizable, but not as much.

It really bugs me that the route waypoints don't show on the route on the
600C. I may have not found the right setting yet. However, It is possible
to show the waypoint being navigated to as a data field.

The nearest airports have a runway length filter on the Garmin. Lowrance
does not have this feature.

I know that someone is going to disagree, but I find the Garmin interface
easier. I find that it takes fewer key punches and the layout is more
logical. I will be the first to discount some of this to the fact that I am
used to Garmin.

Ground use: The current Garmin receivers have the capability to give turn
by turn directions if you use it in your car. With the exception of the
496, you have to buy extra map software and in the case of the 296 and 396
extra memory to enable this. Lowrance's argument is that for the price
savings, you can buy a separate GPS for you car. Lowrance does come with
software with extra detailed maps including street maps. However, you won't
be able to get turn by turn directions.

This is probably not a big deal to most people, but is a really cool
feature: The 600C comes with a basemap for the entire world. On some
previous versions, you had to buy the world reference map chip, but this is
included on the 600C. On the Garmins you had to load extra maps such as
WorldMap for areas outside of the Americas. Additionally, you can load
multiple Jeppesen regions at the same time. With the Garmin handhelds, you
can only load one region at a time. Thus, for an extra $35 the 600C can be
configured to have a worldwide database.


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