comments from gps users?

[Timebuilder]

How about an old Garmin without any kind of map, or a similar Trimble product? The '$2mil plus' planes that I see on the ramp would LOVE to have a Garmin 430 in their panels. The best unit among all those planes is a Universal FMS. That, too has no map. Cost of the plane doesn't mean a lot in terms of the avionics.

Here's a anecdote on "direct" requests.
I had flown out to Ohio for a guy I know in his Cherokee Six, a nice one with older avionics. For the flight back from OSU airport, I filed my first fix as direct to the Appleton VOR, and then V 12 to go home to Reading. I used the /A for the flight plan suffix.

When I called for my clearance, the OSU ground controller questioned the "direct Appleton", asked if I was GPS or Loran equipped, and said that the Columbus tower would want to know how I would get to the VOR. Believe it or not, I had to explain to him that I was going to tune in the VOR, center the needle with a "TO" indication, and fly "direct" to the VOR. Columbus didn't question my ability to get there when I was told to contact them for departure, and the flight was uneventful. Except, that is for the strong tailwind at 11,000 feet that let me get the Cherokee up to 200 knots of groundspeed!

 

[BigFlyr]

My 2 cents for what its worth... As pilots, we always have to consider "what is safe" and "what is legal". With a VFR GPS you cannot file (not legal) as a /G. However, as long as you can backup your position by conventional means (VOR-NDB) you can request direct routing using your GPS. Its done all the time and everyday by 121 as well as 135 and 91 operators. Then again, if there's a Fed on board... ???

 

[Timebuilder]

If there's a Fed on board?

On Sunday, when I was coming back from Boca, I overheard an exchange bewtween Washington Center and a government aircraft used by, shall we say, a 'high government administrator'. The tail number has an "N" and one other digit.....

Center asked the aircraft to change its altitude, and the FO, a young sounding gentleman, seemed a little surprised by the request. You should have head the care and enunciation that the Center controller used to explain that the new altitude would be consistent with the new direction of flight.

It was as if the passenger who is typically on board the plane had been expected to be listening in.

 

[ksu_aviator]

Buzzer, I guess what I was trying to say is don't go IFR with a VFR GPS using only the GPS. I don't know what ATC has, but I do know if they ask you if you are RNAV its because they are questioning what they are seeing infront of them versus what you are telling them. They do know if you filed /a or /g.

 

[JediNein]

High ranking officials

Even highly ranking government officials have to make mistakes in order to learn too. It's possible she was sitting Captain.

 

[siedkick]

http://www.avweb.com/articles/pelperch/pelp0011.html

 

[buzzer]

Thanks all for your comments. The Avweb link provided by siedkick has some good info.