Electronic horizon?

"David Smith" wrote in message
...
If Bumper is correct and the Garmin 196 GPS driven
attitude display can be used for a emergency cloud
descent then presumably the turning glider on a Winpilot
screen will give the same information, or will it ????

David Smith


I agree with the others, I wouldn't want to rely on my trusty Garmin 196 in
some of the typically strong Minden wave conditions I've seen. With the
glider doing zero ground speed, moving sideways or even backwards over the
ground, the GPS map gets all confused, bearing little resemblance to the
real world while trying to show track-up. I can imagine the GPS panel page
would give up and let the "simulated gyro" tumble!

I knew there was a good reason to have that TruTrack too . . . even though,
like the GPS map, I get all confused when I see that little "no pitch" sign!

bumper

I've tried my Compaq Aero with GNII to see how well
I could stay straight and while it may be better than
nothing it sure isn't great. When set to the minimum
scale, between the short trailing track length and
the frequency, it is relatively slow to show banking
change.


At 16:48 09 September 2005, Eric Greenwell wrote:
David Smith wrote:

If Bumper is correct and the Garmin 196 GPS driven
attitude display can be used for a emergency cloud
descent then presumably the turning glider on a Winpilot
screen will give the same information, or will it
????

My experiments with GPS for turn indication showed
success depends very
much on the wind strength: below 20 knots, it's probably
OK; above 30
knots, it's definitely not.

In strong winds, the heading changes displayed become
very sensitive to
turns when flying upwind, and very insensitive when
flying downwind. The
more wind, the worse it gets. This quite different
from a gyro
instrument, which has the same sensitivity regardless
of the wind.
Perhaps a pilot could practice and become adept at
it, and maybe, maybe,
in smooth air it's not a problem, even in strong winds.

Since wind is a always feature of wave flying, I do
not want to rely a
GPS to save my butt during an encounter with clouds.
I have a T&B that I
practice with periodically, though I've never come
close to entering a
cloud. Other club members have, however.

--
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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA