Jonathan,
I would not go so far as to say that a StreetPilot would be useless, but it
is close. The problem with the Street Pilot series is that the design is
very specific to road navigation. The problem is that the StreetPilot is
limited in the datafields that it can display. There is no way to display
bearing or off course. The good news is that you can configure the
StreetPilot series, including the 2610, to give a direct line over the
ground instead of road routings. So you could put in a route and get a line
across a non-aviation map to see where you are, but you would miss the
precision available from a GPS with more precise data fields or displays.
For the most part, there is no practical way to load aviation maps into a
non-aviation GPS. You can check out here is you are really dedicated to the
idea:
http://home.sprintmail.com/~scottbyrd/AirGuideVFR/. However, you can
download waypoints and still use a non-aviation GPS as a very effective
navigation tool. There are a wide variety of non-aviation GPS receivers
that you can use. Generally you can load 500 - 1000 waypoints depending on
the design. However, some units such at the 176 and 276 (way cool!) series
allow you to load up to 3,000 waypoints. Check out
http://navaid.com/ for
waypoints that can be loaded with some free programs.
Check out my book at
www.cockpitgps.com for more info. Many of the examples
use an aviation GPS, but one of my points is that an aviation GPS is often
not necessary. This is not to say that I have anything against using an
aviation GPS, in many ways they are a navigational bargain.
Hope this helps,
John Bell
www.cockpitgps.com
"Jonathan Sorger" wrote in message
...
Passed my private pilot checkride last week and now want to learn about
GPS.
I've searched a bit but have found no threads pertaining to my question -
I'd like opinions or if someone can refer me somewhere...
Someone has offered to give me a Garmin Streetpilot 2610 - is there any
use for one of these in a plane? The 'official word' from Garmin is that
you can't put aviation map data into an automotive unit, but I'm sure
someone has tried...
I realize that an aviation GPS unit is ideal, but would a Streetpilot be
of any use?
Thanks,