"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

I am going quietly mad. I fired up my Garmin III Plus this afternoon
and plugged in the airport, and behold! The airport is to my south,
and the compass needle pointed north. Then I realized that if I turned
360 degrees, the display never changed: the needle always pointed to
the bottom of the compass rose, and north was always at the top.

Am I in simulator mode? What's going on here?


Are you moving? If you're stationary and turn the GPS around, it has no
sense of direction to point North. The GPS must be in motion to determine
which direction is North. Usually walking with the GPS in one direction is
fast enough for it to give direction (and speed) and point North correctly.

Now, if you were moving and it still doesn't register speed and direction
correctly, make sure that you're locked onto enough satellites and not in
demo mode. I'm not familiar with the Garmins but all GPS's work similar to
this...