PDA: Which one and what software?

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello, I am a private pilot aspiring to move up the rating and get my
CFI.

I am in the market for a PDA to help organize my life, dates, phone
numbers, addresses, emails, and also double as a electronic flight
computer and sort of a electronic flight bag type of thing.

My laptop is a Powerbook Mac and my desktop is a PC.

Should I go with a Palm pPilot (OS) or a Pocket PC? And which have
better software for aviation?

Sorry for the basic questions, but I am a total newbie when it comes to
PDA's.

I have a PalmPilot and it does everything I need it to do. As a VFR
pilot, I don't have time in the cockpit to play with any of the toys,
including the PalmPilot. Even with 'George' flying I have too much to do.
Harking back to my brief stint as an instrument student, the aviating tasks
were even more demanding. Add a few bumps enroute while I'm trying to write
something on the graffiti panel and I think I'd probably toss it over my
shoulder into the baggage compartment.
I guess my point is, I don't see any utility to having an electronic
flight computer/flight bag loaded onto a PDA. I do my flight planning on my
HP notebook on the ground before I leave. Anything the GPS won't tell me in
flight, I can figure out rather quickly with pencil on paper and a couple
spins of my whiz-wheel. Just to stay sharp, I sometimes [HORRORS!!] switch
the GPS off.
Small screens, tiny buttons, graffiti panels.... Just doesn't work for
me.

Go Fly!

Casey

On Sun, 21 May 2006 16:58:17 GMT, Casey Wilson wrote:

Small screens, tiny buttons, graffiti panels.... Just doesn't work for
me.

Amen Casey!!!

While I am a "bells and whistles" kinda person, I still use plain ole pen
and paper for writing frequencies, use the ole paper enroute maps, and
still do follow my progress via VOR radials compared to the paper map just
to keep my mind active enroute. No hand held batteries needed.

While my Garmin 430 has a checklists, timers for fuel and the like, I still
use my home created checklist, write down the time to change tanks on paper
on kneeboard and so on. Still no batteries required.

Still have velcro wrapped pens attached to velcro strips on my knee board.
Using Velcro in flight is one of the best inventions since sliced bread :-)

The only reason I tote my PDA along is for the hopes of wireless access in
the FBO when I arrive :-) as there are some FBO's that have different
flight briefing services that I don't like.

Allen

Casey Wilson wrote:



I have a PalmPilot and it does everything I need it to do. As a VFR
pilot, I don't have time in the cockpit to play with any of the toys,
including the PalmPilot. Even with 'George' flying I have too much to do.

Then you're doing something wrong. On long cross countries I pretty
much sit there, and I don't have an autopilot.



Small screens, tiny buttons, graffiti panels.... Just doesn't work for
me.

The PDA screen is the biggest screen I have in the plane, buttons are
about the same size as the panel mount GPS and graffiti panels are the
bane of Palm.

"Frode Berg" wrote in message


Youre requeired to fly with paper charts on board anyway, so why
chuck the money out.

Who requires you to fly with paper charts on board?

--
John T
http://sage1solutions.com/TknoFlyer
Reduce spam. Use Sender Policy Framework: http://spf.pobox.com
____________________

"Newps" wrote in message
...


Casey Wilson wrote:



I have a PalmPilot and it does everything I need it to do. As a VFR
pilot, I don't have time in the cockpit to play with any of the toys,
including the PalmPilot. Even with 'George' flying I have too much to do.

Then you're doing something wrong. On long cross countries I pretty much
sit there, and I don't have an autopilot.

I know better than that, Newps.
While you are "pretty much sitting there" you are glancing at the
instruments, albeit now and then, scanning outside the cockpit for other
aircraft (especially the ones your pals in flight following happen to
mention), leveling the wings, kicking the nose over to get back on course,
bumping the nose up or down to zero the VSI, admiring the river twisting and
turning, fiddling with the red knob to lean or richen the engine a bit
better, noting the time for passage over a waypoint, comparing ground speed
to airspeed, noting elapsed time against fuel consumption, changing the CD,
snacking on a sandwich or cookie or unwrapping a Snickers, not to mention
being sociable to the passengers, if any....

nobody really.

I just always figured it's a good idea to have the charts on board in case
that fancy piece of computer equipment goes blank on me...

:-)

Frode


"John T" skrev i melding
m...
"Frode Berg" wrote in message


Youre requeired to fly with paper charts on board anyway, so why
chuck the money out.

Who requires you to fly with paper charts on board?

--
John T
http://sage1solutions.com/TknoFlyer
Reduce spam. Use Sender Policy Framework: http://spf.pobox.com
____________________

wrote:

I am in the market for a PDA to help organize my life, dates, phone
numbers, addresses, emails, and also double as a electronic flight
computer and sort of a electronic flight bag type of thing.

Has anyone here tired the Garmin iQue 3600a? It has built in GPS and a
little cradle to mount in the plane that gives larger and more buttons
which I am guessing reduces or eliminates the need for the graffiti pen
entry system. It is Palm OS I think. I haven't read much about it but
being a palm fan it looks like it would be pretty nice. They want a lot
of money for it though, about $1,000 I think.

--
Chris W
KE5GIX

Gift Giving Made Easy
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give the gifts they want
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from anywhere, for any occasion!
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Newps,

you'd be better off getting a Garmin 295. You can get them
for $500 pretty much every day.


Actually, for that money, you want a brand-new Lowrance Airmap 600c
with a fast processor, high resolution and 16-channels, not an ancient
295. It's called progress ;-)

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

In a previous article, said:
I am in the market for a PDA to help organize my life, dates, phone
numbers, addresses, emails, and also double as a electronic flight
computer and sort of a electronic flight bag type of thing.

My laptop is a Powerbook Mac and my desktop is a PC.

Should I go with a Palm pPilot (OS) or a Pocket PC? And which have
better software for aviation?

I've been using Palm PDAs for a long time. They work well with Mac OS,
Linux, and I'm told they even work with Windows although I'm fortunate
enough to have never tried. I use CoPilot (see my web site
http://xcski.com/~ptomblin/CoPilot for details) as an important part for
my flight planning - I put the flight plan into it so that I can enter the
winds and have an accurate ETE, as well as being able to do the w&b and
just read the flight plan (in either US, Canadian or ICAO formats) off the
screen.

Up until Saturday when somebody tried to teach me how to ride a
motorcycle, I used a Palm Treo as my phone and PDA, and it was great to be
able to use it to check weather and see radar pictures and satellite maps
when I wasn't at home. I'm hoping my insurance covers a smashed and
slightly blood covered Treo because I really missed it on the flight home.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
It's not 'I don't do Windows', it's 'I know nothing about Windows,
and it generally explodes when I get near it'.
-- Matt McLeod

I am using co-pilot for flight planning. Navaid.com to get waypoint updates.
I am using Flightmaster (www.flight-master.com) for gps software on my Treo
650. The 2 work together very nicely.Works very nice. Moving map, HSI, lots
of neat features.

-Jonathan

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
In a previous article, said:
I am in the market for a PDA to help organize my life, dates, phone
numbers, addresses, emails, and also double as a electronic flight
computer and sort of a electronic flight bag type of thing.

My laptop is a Powerbook Mac and my desktop is a PC.

Should I go with a Palm pPilot (OS) or a Pocket PC? And which have
better software for aviation?

I've been using Palm PDAs for a long time. They work well with Mac OS,
Linux, and I'm told they even work with Windows although I'm fortunate
enough to have never tried. I use CoPilot (see my web site
http://xcski.com/~ptomblin/CoPilot for details) as an important part for
my flight planning - I put the flight plan into it so that I can enter the
winds and have an accurate ETE, as well as being able to do the w&b and
just read the flight plan (in either US, Canadian or ICAO formats) off the
screen.

Up until Saturday when somebody tried to teach me how to ride a
motorcycle, I used a Palm Treo as my phone and PDA, and it was great to be
able to use it to check weather and see radar pictures and satellite maps
when I wasn't at home. I'm hoping my insurance covers a smashed and
slightly blood covered Treo because I really missed it on the flight home.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
It's not 'I don't do Windows', it's 'I know nothing about Windows,
and it generally explodes when I get near it'.
-- Matt McLeod