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F Y I, Garmin 296 Software


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I agree with helicanada and if your dash space allows,, just put in the pop out hard case,, and Velcro that to the dash,, easy,, and with the power supply just there ,, away you go, !!!. Garmin are loosing market share hand over fist,, as doing what blackberry did,,, sitting back and enjoying what they have ,, whilst all the competitors whizzzzzz on by.

 

Not a fan of apple either,, but you have to agree,, it does what it says on the tin!. (foreflight too, come to that)

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I trust that all of you out there with your own GPS transfer all the waypoints you have collected while working on whatever you are working on, into the helicopter's GPS. Nothing like endearing yourself to your replacement pilot when their first couple of hours on the job is spent installing waypoints - especially with the customer standing over top of you wondering what the hold up is,

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I trust that all of you out there with your own GPS transfer all the waypoints you have collected while working on whatever you are working on, into the helicopter's GPS. Nothing like endearing yourself to your replacement pilot when their first couple of hours on the job is spent installing waypoints - especially with the customer standing over top of you wondering what the hold up is,

Agree, I always hated following the gadget guys and having to spend an hour going through spares boxes/camp/ every nook and cranny of the machine trying to find the aircraft's GPS and cords.

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For those of you wondering about the RAM mount, etc for the iPad mini, I went with a 64GB mini 3G with the retina display in a life proof Fre case. I then purchased the Lifepoof cradle which has a provision for a RAM ball at the back. I've been flying with it now for about a month and these are my initial thoughts.

 

  • I get about 10-15% per hour of battery life. Depending on screen brightness and how much I use the data feature, in my setup I placed a SIM card into it and have it sharing my data plan that my wife and I already share.
  • With the data plan, I only use between 5-10MB/day while flying if I'm heavily referencing weather and airport information.
  • If you buy the 3G version, don't waste your money on buying an external GPS. The internal cellular GPS is more than efficient on finding birds, even when powering on in non-cellular areas. Case in point, I ran it on a recent flight from Edmonton to Yellowknife on Westjet, I had an aisle seat and it locked onto location in about 20 seconds from a cold start with no cell service at 40,000'.
  • At Costco, I found a laptop hard drive sized external battery pack. I have that velcro'd to the back of my lifeproof cradle, and then the USB cable powering the iPad mini. My battery pack is 8000mAh, which means I get around 2-3 full charges out of the ipad with it; not to mention it's a great bush power pack to keep your phone or other devices charged when waiting for the customer and you've drained your battery playing Angry Birds. The Costco pack also came with a 12-24v USB cigarette lighter unit that runs off the tail that I've created that plugs into AC power, and thus can actually power the iPad during flight.
  • I still use my 496 religiously and update the NavData about once a year. I wouldn't fly the iPad solely, (even though I'm confident I could), I purely use it as my backup navigation/map/CFS device, which it does flawless.
  • I'm still a low-timer in the grande scheme of things, and my company mainly has me doing ferry flights between AS350 an BH06 products. Having the moving VNC/VTA ability is amazing from a ferry point of perspective, however if you're within 10 miles of camp the whole time moving a drill, I don't see it being beneficial.

Here are the cases and cradle that I bought:

 

Case: http://www.lifeproof.com/shop/us_en/ipad-mini-retina/ipad-mini-retina-fre-case/?color=Black+%2F+Black

Cradle: http://www.lifeproof.com/shop/us_en/lifeproof-cradle-for-the-ipad-mini-nuud-and-fre/

 

Finally, as for window mounting the unit in the window, the mini fits perfectly for me right near the door pillar where the window is near flat on both the AS350 and the BH06. I've gone through rough turbulence and hot days and no issue with the setup. Attached is a picture of what the cockpit looked like while on a recent Long Ranger trip.ipad%2520window%2520bh06.jpg

 

If any of you have any questions, please feel free to let me know. I'll be happy to share my experiences with it thus far.

 

Cheers!

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Seems like Apple and all their propitiatory BS (as much as Garmin's) are the default setting since Garmin was pantsed in the school yard and stood there like an idiot instead of pulling up their pants and getting to work. Even though I do love my 296 and MapSource I do acknowledge that Garmin have failed to serve the VFR helicopter market by not developing new products we want, maybe there is just not enough money in it for them to bother?

 

I have always used my own GPS since I first "discovered" technology even if the machine had a company unit in it, the convenience of knowing what data you have, the condition of the unit, its antenna and it's battery (or cable) etc. far outweighs my concern for some schmo who won't invest a bit in himself by buying his own. A few companies I have worked for have Garmin 196's or 296's so it's easy to give your cross shift the waypoints as an email file or SD card or USB stick from your own GPS via the computer software but if there is a stone age Trimble, Bendix King, or a Garmin 100 or such that usually has no user manuals, compatible interface cords and who can remember or figure out how to use them, then you're on your own as far as I'm concerned. I never use the ships' GPS, just too much of a pain and if the pilot coming in wants to, they can figure out how to get the data converted and installed and learn how to use a different unit each time they get in a different machine.

 

I am enjoying the exchange of information and ideas,

 

W.

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Regarding the comment about sharing waypoints to the aircraft GPS, the last helicopter company I worked for required pilots to have their own GPS.

 

At any rate, out of curiousity I sent an email query to Foreflight:

 

Re: Export waypoints - in bulk, or select ones - to Garmin

Hi there,
Is there a means to export a list of waypoints to a Garmin unit (easily, in a format it can understand)?

Someone raised the point recently that when sharing an aircraft where one pilot uses Foreflight and another uses Garmin, the waypoints could not be shared between the two units.
Can you clarify whether this is the case, and if not, the procedure and format?

 

___________________________________________________________

 

Foreflight response from the support department (within 3 hours I might add!)

 

"Right now we don't have an easy way to export waypoints to another app, or to a handheld Garmin. That is something that our development team is exploring as a future enhancement, but I don't have a timeline on when that could be implemented."

I intend to respond that I'm requesting this feature! Apparently you can't export to other apps either, which is a major flaw IMHO. A person might wish to export waypoints to another mapping app, or to another map format - ie exporting them to a marine map. One might even want to share with another Foreflight user, not to mention Garmin.

 

So, as Whitestone said, interesting exchange of ideas.

 

Cheers,

tin lizzie

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Very funny Topher and here I was biting my tongue about not thinking he had graduated from crayons to pencils yet... All in good fun, we know what a clever and talented fellow you are helicopterjim !

 

I "fondly" remember the good ol' days days when pilots didn't find their destination due to difficulty navigating due to low altitude flying in poor weather or running short of fuel, yeah, the good old days...

 

With the technology we have at hand today, GPS gives us another layer of security. I look at my charts when going into an unfamiliar area but for the most part it's GPS. Point "A" to point "B", simple if the info or data you were give and converted is accurate. If you have to convert it to another format and the grid and datum you were given was correct and converted and installed correctly, still lots of pit falls.

 

 

Found this on the net:

 

http://www.foreflight.com/support/user-waypoints

 

So given that KMZ-KML (Google Earth type) files are one of the supported types for Foreflight, you could use GPSBabel to convert it to a GDB Garmin file. Has anyone used that system yet to convert and install files?

 

W

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Very funny Topher and here I was biting my tongue about not thinking he had graduated from crayons to pencils yet... All in good fun, we know what a clever and talented fellow you are helicopterjim !

 

I "fondly" remember the good ol' days days when pilots didn't find their destination due to difficulty navigating due to low altitude flying in poor weather or running short of fuel, yeah, the good old days...

 

With the technology we have at hand today, GPS gives us another layer of security. I look at my charts when going into an unfamiliar area but for the most part it's GPS. Point "A" to point "B", simple if the info or data you were give and converted is accurate. If you have to convert it to another format and the grid and datum you were given was correct and converted and installed correctly, still lots of pit falls.

 

 

Found this on the net:

 

http://www.foreflight.com/support/user-waypoints

 

So given that KMZ-KML (Google Earth type) files are one of the supported types for Foreflight, you could use GPSBabel to convert it to a GDB Garmin file. Has anyone used that system yet to convert and install files?

 

W

Did you know that Garmin Basecamp also accepts KMZ/KML (Google Earth) files as a supported format. Although Basecamp takes some getting used to (after map source) and it could use some improvements in some areas, it does have some improved features from map source. For one it will allow you to save the file as GDB and upload direct to GPS (without using a 3rd party softwRe like GPS Babel).

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