Sectional use

Jay,
I'd agree that for primary nagivation, GPS is becoming the primary
tool for many pilots but this does not mean that sectionals are not
needed. Actually, I was quite surprise to see your statements "What's
a "sectional"? Seriously, how many here still use them for primary
navigation? I honestly can't say I know anyone who does, anymore.
From the responses that I have seen so far, it looks like either you
don't know many pilots or you don't know much about the pilots that
you know ;-)
Although GPS has come down in prices, to have the latest and
greatest ones with weather , color map and terrain features and to
have redudancy (two units) like your setup require a relatively deep
pocket. It's nice that the newer GPSs have terrain features but their
tiny screens do not provide as much information both in term of range
and resolution as the big sectional. Besides, to rely solely on GPS
for navigation, you have to assume 100% reception. In my limited
experience of using GPS in the last 4 years, I have lost GPS signals
in at least two occasions. In addition, it is quite expensive to keep
the GPS database current. The Jeppesen database update for our
Lowrance unit cost $35/month or $299/year. It's much cheaper to keep
the paper based navigation tools (enroute maps & sectionals) current
so we buy fresh maps and only update the Lowrance once a year prior to
a major cross country trip.
The hand-held GPS is our primary navigation for now (until we get
the Garmin 430 or 480) but we never take off without making sure
that all our avionics (VORs, ADF, localizer, glide slope, marker
beacon) are working and that we have both the IFR enroute maps and
sectionals on board. Oh by way, we still cross check our instrument
navigation with pilotage and ded reckoning in every single flight (of
course with the exception of IMC condition ;-)).

Hai Longworth

needed. Actually, I was quite surprise to see your statements "What's
a "sectional"?

Um, that's what's called a "tongue-in-cheek" statement, in my neck of
the woods...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"