I have an Acer One NetBook that I used last summer on a soaring safari to
Tonopah NV.
IT WAS GREAT !!!
The screen is 7.5 in wide, 9 in diagonal. Mine is one of the "first
generation" netbooks with 120GB internal HD, not the SSD drive and it runs
WinXP just fine. I also have Office2007Home loaded.

My NetBook did not have the built in Broadband, just the built in wifi., The
hotel lobby had free wifi.
I bought an external VirginMobile USB Broadband access capability that ran
just fine. No set charges and Pay as you go access, I can turn it on or off
month to month. A weeks soaring and other evening activity I used about
150MB of the 200MB I paid for the month. The FBO at the airport also had
limited wifi access but the USB Broadband was much faster.

My AcerOne has two SD ports, so loading a task or downloading post flight
data via SD card is no problem. The Colibri uses the microSD cards, but when
you buy a microSD card they come with the "adapter" to full size SD.

VirginMobile USB Month to Month, is much cheaper than Verizon or Sprint
Contract costs. Just check your coverage areas for where you will be flying.
Cricket also has the same "pay as you go" 3G access.

I run SeeYou for task planning and review. SeeYou worked great with the USB
connection to the Colibri data logger for setting tasks and downloading
files.

I was also able to use a USB to Serial Cable to download GPS data from a
Garmin 76S Handheld either with SeeYou or a GPS data grabber utility. My
older Garmin 76 has the 4 pin to serial cable. A Serial to USB had no
problems. Sometimes it would kick as to which CommPort it wanted to
communicate on. But after that was figured out, no problems. (Serial is very
slow data transfer).

I use XC-Skies for weather forecasting, but Dr Jack would be about the same.
With the short screen, just need to scroll up and down to see the full
picture.

I also have a small mouse to use with major work instead of using the touch
pad mouse all the time. It would work just as well with a wireless bluetooth
mouse. With 3 USB ports it was fine. Also mine has two SD slots. One for
"transferring data" the other slides in farther and a 16GB SD card could be
used as a second internal storage device.

I have not used it for LXE or Cambridge devices.

BT
email at bee tee eye zee two @ cox.net


wrote in message
...
I am thinking about buying a Net Book Computer with 10 1/2 inch screen
for use in soaring. In addition to internet access, I would want to
run Seeyou, LXE, Cambridge (dos),and Dr Jacks forecasts. Has anyone
used a Net book for these items and were there any problems? If you
add a USB to serial adapter, did it comunuicate easily with the GPS/
NAV (Cambridge)? I fly with the Cambridge GPS/NAV and a LX 7007.
Need to load turnpoints with serial port to GPS/NAV and be able to
download flights from GPS/Nav via serial port. The comuincation with
LX 7007 is via SD Chip or serial port through the LXE software. What
make and model Netbok do you recommend?

Bill Snead
6W