Technical Tips

Find errors in your GPS database, or in a GPS Companion? Please e-mail us; we'll post corrections on this website.

ATTENTION: Owners of moving map navigators, like Garmin's GPS III

Pre-trip planning is essential to get the most from any GPS. This is especially true if you plan to use the highway basemap in your new GPS III. It is important enough for Garmin to put it in their SALES literature (not just the manual). It is this planning phase that the GPS Companions are essential!

Stop Endless ZOOMING!

Most trips can be defined by 4-5 waypoints which are then put into a route. Locating these waypoints (on the built-in basemap) can be difficult, even in a familiar area. Most users need to zoom out to a very high level and then adjust the cursor position as they zoom back in to find each target. Multiple attempts may be required to find unfamiliar locations. This can be frustrating! Single-axis moves are relatively easy but moving the cursor along a diagonal freeway is quite difficult.

Here' an easy solution to the problem: when you begin to move the cursor, the Lat/Long position automatically appears in a window above the map. The GPS Companions make it possible to move the cursor to the known latitude of your proposed waypoint and then make a second single-axis move right to the correct longitude! Then you can mark the town itself or the highway near it as you choose. Even if the point you've chosen is not on the basemap you can just as quickly add it!

The GPS Companions eliminate the frustration of trip planning with the Garmin GPS III. Time-consuming guesswork is eliminated as cursor movement becomes a clear and direct process. Navigation to points on the basemap is made easier and navigation to thousands of points not on the basemap is made possible!

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An Easier Way to Enter Waypoints

As noted above, once you aim the cursor at the location of a needed waypoint, you can create it immediately. You don't need to enter the individual digits into the numeric display. The "cursor entry" method is similar to using a computer mouse. Many users of navigators with map displays may prefer it. You can use the zoom feature to adjust from "coarse" to "fine" movements in Lat/long. Just point and click!

Save Time Creating Routes

When adding waypoints that you plan to use in a route, enter the "create a new route" function first. Then add the new waypoints. They will automatically become part of the route, so you don't have to add them later. This saves the step of finding and selecting all the waypoints you just created to make them part of the route.

Don't Like the Default Waypoint in the GOTO Command?

(This tip may be more specific to Garmin units.) You don't need to start scrolling from the default waypoint. You CAN clear the field by hitting the left arrow. This "clear field" command is not documented in the manual for the GPS, but it works.

Notice for Users of GPS III PILOT's HSI Display

There is an extra heading "bug" on the moving compass card that is not shown at all in the manual. this is a "suggested" heading to guide you back to your programmed course line. The farther off course you are, the more agressive the return angle will be. Then as you near the course line, the suggested heading will change. It's meant to help you "round out" right on your intended course.

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Where Exactly IS St. Peter, Minnesota?

The answer is in the North Central GPS Companion:

Saint Peter

44 19 25N

093 57 28W

city/town

N/A

There are a few data sources that have another location for St. Peter, which is about 5.4 miles south of the correct location. This shows up in several GPS basemaps, or "wallpaper" maps and also in RMS Flightsoft (TM) flight planning software.

The Flightsoft map shown depicts St. Peter near the bottom, but when I flew over that spot there is nothing farm land. You can see a cluster of streets near the top of the map that really is the location of St. Peter. All Garmin GPS III's that I have checked (including brand new year 2000 units) contain this same error. I suspect that many other GPS basemaps do as well. The new Garmin 295, however, has the correct location for St. Peter.

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