GPS switched S for N!

The other day I flew up to Alton Bay. While over the bay, but still
flying north, I went go-to my waypoint for Hampton airport. (Not the
airport waypoint in the database, but one I programmed in, and that
puts me over the start of the 45 from the west.)

When I got up to the mouth of the bay, I turned around and followed
the bug back south. After half an hour I realized that I was west of
my expected track. Indeed I was going almost precisely south instead
of SSE.

What's more, my destination was 5,900 miles distant, and the time to
get there was 84 hours. The day was milky, so I couldn't see anything
on the horizon, so I turned SE until I came over US 4, then followed
that back to the seacoast.

When I got home, I scanned out and out on the map, to find that my
waypoint was now located in the Andes on the Argentinian side of the
Chile-Argentina border. Still, the coordinates looked very familar. On
a hunch, I changed the S to an N, and behold! The waypoint moved back
to the seacoast of New Hampshire.

What happened?

And could it happen to the waypoints in the database?

(Garmin 296)

thanks!


-- all the best, Dan Ford

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