Entering GPS waypoints

GPS is great. It's revolutionized small plane navigation. But one thing
that bugs me is that there are two or even possibly three ways of
entering a GPS waypoint.
DD MM SS Degrees minutes seconds which is how we were taught in
school
DD MM.XX Degrees minutes and 10ths and 100ths of minutes
DD.XXXX Some genius has Degrees and decimals of degrees.

I think the first way DD MM SS is the best but I could live with the
second way. But whatever we do, CAN WE GET EVERYONE TO AGREE ON ONE
METHOD!!! If it hasn't already caused an accident I bet it will. Also
search and rescue position reporting etc foulups are easily caused by
this.

I'll agree that we should all do it the same way -
as long as it's my way

Place the pointer over the waypoint - hold it down for 2 seconds - Done!

Who needs all this DD MM SS stuff - get a GPS with charts!

Tony

--

Tony Roberts
PP-ASEL
VFR OTT
Night
Cessna 172H C-GICE

In article .com,
"Doug" wrote:

GPS is great. It's revolutionized small plane navigation. But one thing
that bugs me is that there are two or even possibly three ways of
entering a GPS waypoint.
DD MM SS Degrees minutes seconds which is how we were taught in
school
DD MM.XX Degrees minutes and 10ths and 100ths of minutes
DD.XXXX Some genius has Degrees and decimals of degrees.

I think the first way DD MM SS is the best but I could live with the
second way. But whatever we do, CAN WE GET EVERYONE TO AGREE ON ONE
METHOD!!! If it hasn't already caused an accident I bet it will. Also
search and rescue position reporting etc foulups are easily caused by
this.

Well, I can think of a couple. You are down, safely but crashed. You
pick up an airliner on 121.5. Ready to copy, he says. You say N48 34'
26". He says uh, could you give that to me in fssst %^^ north
---***$%^& copy )(*)_*. Last you hear of him.

Or you have to enter the waypoint manually on a ferry flight. The unit
wants it one way, you are used to another. End up entering it wrong.
You run out of fuel.

Or CAP flight is searching off of a waypoint in DD MM SS and it's been
given to them in DD. XXXX and they do the conversion wrong. Guy dies of
exposure just before they find him.

You get the idea.

I doubt it.

1 deg = 60 NM, at the equator this means (approx) an area of 3600 NM
square.
1 minute = 1NM or 1/60 of a degree, an area of 2NM square
1 minute in decimal= 0.6NM or .36 NM square area.
Never mind the seconds.

Not much of a difference when they are looking(i think).

I would be more worried about using the same GPS reference(WPS-84 etc).

-Kees

P.S. For ease conversions buy a $10 calculator.

wrote in message
ups.com...
I doubt it.

1 deg = 60 NM, at the equator this means (approx) an area of 3600 NM
square.
1 minute = 1NM or 1/60 of a degree, an area of 2NM square
1 minute in decimal= 0.6NM or .36 NM square area.
Never mind the seconds.

Not much of a difference when they are looking(i think).

I would be more worried about using the same GPS reference(WPS-84 etc).


Yes, if you are using WPS-84, it could be a real pain :-)

Doug wrote:
Well, I can think of a couple. You are down, safely but crashed. You
pick up an airliner on 121.5. Ready to copy, he says. You say N48 34'
26". He says uh, could you give that to me in fssst %^^ north
---***$%^& copy )(*)_*. Last you hear of him.

Pretty lame scenario. Fact is, someone copying your position in a
S&R just going to copy your position and not ask for silly things in
the middle of your transmission.

Personally, I don't really care if this is standardized or not.
Every GPS I've ever known will take either method 1 or 2 (not sure
about 3). The placement of the decimal point makes it instantly clear
what method is being used.

During fire season in the Rockies, I usually get to report at least
one fire per year to Center. I report them in HHMMSS, HHMM.xxx,
(depending on which GPS I'm using), and even VOR radial and distance.
The only resistance I ever encountered was about 5 yrs. ago when the
controller did not want lat./long. coordinates, but insisted on a VOR
radial and distance.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

On 18 Jul 2005 21:12:54 -0700, "Doug"
wrote:

DD MM SS Degrees minutes seconds which is how we were taught in
school
DD MM.XX Degrees minutes and 10ths and 100ths of minutes

I've run into this one on DUATS, right?

s.


-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
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Doug,

But whatever we do, CAN WE GET EVERYONE TO AGREE ON ONE
METHOD!!!


Uhm, aren't you hailing from the land of feet, Fahrenheit, inch Hg.,
"point" and other pecularities? Coordinates are just another oddity in
the world of units...

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 16:13:03 +0200, Thomas Borchert
wrote:


Uhm, aren't you hailing from the land of feet, Fahrenheit, inch Hg.,
"point" and other pecularities?

Uhm, what do you think, we have two measures of feet, degrees, inches?
Not for a couple centuries.

(Well, we have two measures of degrees, but only because some mindless
Frenchman thought it would help to run the world by the boiling and
freezing points of water. Here in Fahrenheit-land, the world is run by
the tolerances of the human body. Much more civilized. Who cares a fig
about what water thinks?)



-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum: www.pipercubforum.com
the blog: www.danford.net
In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com

Cub,

[...] Who cares a fig about what water thinks?)

Serious pilots do, because water/moisture is what weather is made of... ;-)

Best regards

Kai