PDA: Which one and what software?

Hi!

Does Radar Watch include Europe radar, or is it US only?

Frode


"Newps" skrev i melding
. ..


wrote:
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.

First let me state that with what you will spend on the PDA and stuff for
flying you'd be better off getting a Garmin 295. You can get them for
$500 pretty much every day. But if you just got to get the PDA:
You want one with bluetooth. Then get a bluetooth GPS. I've got the
Altina GBT708. Got it off ebay for about $75. For flying purposes
spending more on a GPS really gets you nothing more in usefulness or
accuracy. I have a Dell Axim X51v, I've also used the X50v and the X50
mid, they all work great, no difference between them. For software I've
tried most of them. Anywheremap is OK but breaks my basic rule with any
PDA software, never buy something you don't get a free trial on. My
favorite is NavGPS Pro. They all work, the difference is what the
interface looks like. To me NavGPS is far better than all of them. For
flight planning you can't beat WingX from Hilton software.
The main problems you have with a PDA is the screen can get washed out
in bright sun and you really gotta have it plugged in to the lighter
otherwise the battery gets sucked down too fast. My Dell also has
wireless so the WingX program will go online and get the weather as well
as the usual email and surfing. Another weather program I like for the
Dell is called Radar Watch 2. It's the best radar display I've found for
the PDA. Loads fast and loops radar.

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)

"Thomas Borchert" wrote

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 ;-)

As long as you feel comfortable that Lowrance is not going to declare it
obsolete, and stop all support, (making it a paperweight) then that may be
true. I have a long memory, when it comes to things like that.
--
Jim in NC

Morgans,

I have a long memory, when it comes to things like that.


Then I guess you remember Garmin doing the same thing.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Thomas Borchert wrote:

Morgans,


I have a long memory, when it comes to things like that.



Then I guess you remember Garmin doing the same thing.



With their GPS 90, everything newer than that is still supported.

A good resource for evaluating handheld aviation software, both for
Palm and various PocketPCs, is www.palmflying.com.

I have used the excellent shareware CoPilot, and there is now a moving
map that works with it and is pretty inexpensive, which I believe is
called FlightMaster. You can check them out on the site above.

Cheers,
Wiz

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.

"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....