Today the Sony VAIO PCG-TR1AP notebook arrived, so I was able to install
WxWorx on it and add the GPS map option.

The Sony is a dandy little machine. It's about 10.5"x7"x2" folded up. The
screen is 10.6" diag. and, as advertized, very bright. It was easily
viewable in the car when I took it for a test drive in very bright sun
conditions. However, the screen is not anti-glare coated, an annoying miss
by Sony. Still, I had no trouble seeing what I needed on the display.

Loading the WxWorx software was no problem, and neither was connecting the
USB-powered GPS. All I had to do was copy the USB driver from the CD to the
Sony's hard drive, plug in the GPS and point Windows to the driver. The GPS
LED started blinking in about 30 seconds, indicating it had position.

The only glitch came when I started WxWorx: it couldn't find the GPS. A call
to WxWorx soon fixed this, but be warned: you have to keep them on the right
track. The guy I talked to had a solution ready for me, only trouble was it
was for some other problem. Once I got him convinced what my real problem
was, he went and asked someone who really knew something (this seems to
happen a lot) and we quickly got things sorted out.

Now! Let's fire it up and try it out! I set the laptop on the car seat
beside me. Cables were coiling everywhe receiver USB cable, GPS USB cable
and receiver power cable. It's going to be a real challenge to organize this
stuff in the airplane. Anyway, WxWorx started up and immediately initialized
the receiver, locked onto both satellites and recognized the GPS. With the
click of two buttons, I had a little airplane driving west on Hwy 90, headed
toward some isolated level 4 cells down around Gulfport. Oh, joy! Oh,
rapture! Blind no more! this is just TOO cool. Barely able to take my eyes
off the thing to drive, I managed to avoid a collision as I checked out the
viewability with the sun at various angles. It was fine. I think I love this
thing.

Next: flight test.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM