Garmin Nuvi for Aerial Navigation

Set for pedestrian.
Set for 2D map display; North Up or Track Up. I think North Up would make the most sense.

I've used my Nuvi on an airplane and I could see the major roads and larger cities going by. No complaints or snapping to the roads. I'd be a little nervous if the pilot was using this for anything other than amusement and general positioning. It just doesn't have the features for that. I recall an earlier discussion where setting a destination draws a straight line from your current position to your destination. It does not adjust the heading information or the line if you deviate from that straight line.

I left my Nuvi hooked up to a mini 12-volt lead acid battery, and the battery is down to 5 VDC, and my Nuvi won't turn on!

Will try again if I can bring it back to life!

And yes this is only an experiment!

You are absolutely correct about why you should not use a car GPS for flying. Flying involves crosswind components. Airplanes ideally should be flying a specific ground track at a known airspeed, accounting for wind translates into ground speed, which further establishes time between waypoints, and ultimately should resemble a known fuel-burn. These are things you have calculated up front. The whole idea is not to run out of gas! Since we cannot program specific point to point fixes, there is no definable track. This is basically why a car GPS’ cannot be used for flight planning/en-route tracking.

That said, I do see some value in just having a large moving map, as originally noted in my first post. Also, VFR flying is not as structured as IFR, so in the interest of safely, it might be wise to overfly highways and roads in case of engine failure in a small plane.

Most aviation GPS’ depicts major highways, (my Garmin 96C shows me obstacles not depicted on the FAA terminal/sectional charts!) but highways are also shown in less expensive car GPS’, with even much better detail!

So in an emergency situation with engine out, no airport close by, a car GPS gives you information about what is happening beneath you as you approach the city, and the AV GPS gives you the other stuff like obstacles, maybe even terrain.

This is just a theory, I hope I never have to deal with it! But since it happens from time to time, you have to have a plan for everything, and this makes you a safer pilot, or one that is less panicked!

Even with GPS though, we are required to carry current VFR charts. In case batteries fail, we are back to the basic skill set every pilot is trained on; dead reckoning, pilotage and basic (VOR) radio naviation.

Using a ground based GPS isn't the best idea. While its use for situational awareness might be occasionally useful, it doesn't replace VFR charts or aviation units.

See the thread here:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/26379

Using a Nuvi for Aerial navigation is asking for all kinds of problems, use it as a reference, not as a nav aid source.

lots of good points.

My Nuvi is confirmed dead. Don't know how it happened, or if repairs are covered under warranty. I take it as a sign from the Head Pilot in the Sky I shouldn't be using the Nuvi for aerial navigation

My 96C is a great AV GPS for the money, I tried using it in "driving" mode this morning... I think it could be used as a backup in the car, but the Nuvi is really designed for the optimum driving experience.

I am thinking of using this as an excuse to get the Aera, or the 496, nice big screen, fast 5hz updates...

Have you tried plugging it into your computer via usb and let it fully charge that way?

tried that. I contacted Garmin last night, and they came back with an RMA number, looks like they are going to fix it It is an awesome car GPS!

I'm a pilot with over 4000 hours of flying time and own my own plane. I would not use a ground GPS unit for flying - period. Garmin makes some handheld aircraft units - I believe the models are 296, 396 and 496. I have a Garmin in my plane (model 530) but they are very very expensive. I have turned my Nuvi 680 on for the fun of it just to see what it does but would never use it for navigation.

If by "Complex Airspace" you mean any thing that the FAA has designated as airspace then I would have to say probably not.

Picture yourself cruising thru the LA basin or virtually anywhere on the north east coast hoping that somthing that thinks it is on the ground is going to help you at 1000 or 1500 AGL.

I had been using a 265WT in the car and when the Aere 5oo series came around I picked up a 550. My aging GPS in the plane no longer was able to see a lot of airports due to the change in designator that happened a while back so needed to do something.

The 550 is not perfect, as the automotive side and the aircraft side are not totally partitioned off from each other: example - if you zoom in on the aircraft screen sufficintly far (like a scale of .5 or so NM the screen becomes obliterated with automotive POI's like ATM locations and such, you can turn them off, but its just not what you need to Know at 9500 AGL over a metropoliton area.
However, it is great for situational awareness, airspace bounderies, both laterally and vertically, terrian obsticles.

But, even so, moving reliance to the device and away from the charts is not a good idea, I think.

Roger

Aviation use, try this instead!

http://sportys.com/PilotShop/product/14266

I was doing research on the various models, and decided, at least for me, I need only the basics. Will be nice to step up to a large and fast display, touch screen, and finally have terrain. That said, I am very comfortable with the 96c; the battery life does justify that tiny screen. I used it the other week when I flew around the LA basin and did the LAX mini-route, a favorite local “adventure” of sorts.

I absolutely agree over-reliance on technology might not be a good idea because GPS units make it possible to climb into the cockpit without doing research you would normally have to do.

No pilots I know use a GPS. They are perfectly content with their charts and eyeballs, the very basics. There is a good argument this is the way it should be. My argument in favor GPS can increase your confidence in the air for a fairly low cost; there is no "question mark" about "where", leaving you time to tend to other things, like looking for traffic, an important task in GA VFR!

If possible can you please provide me with a download link for all the POIs and others for my Garmin Nuvi 350NA?

hello I have a Garmin Nuvi 350NA and am wanting to use it for watching nearby planes can you please provide me with the download links for the software?