FanMan

I used my gps for flying my powered paraglider and my ultralight, both for groundspeed indication and navigation, but also to record the flights... using some analysis software I can evaluate the performance of different motor/proleller/wing combinations. And, of course, hiking, hunting, and geocaching.

I flew out and landed my powered paraglider to an island to find a cache once...

Everybody gets hung up on the "cotton kills" thing, and yes, in many circumstances cotton clothing is a bad idea. However, on a hot summer day it can be the most appropriate thing. On a fall, winter, or spring hike you can be sure I've got wicking materials and fleece or wool, depending on the temperature... but on a summer hike I'm going to be in a cotton T-shirt (though on an overnighter I'll have something else to change into as well). Most of the year I hike in cotton zip-off trousers... but have an extra pair of fleece in my pack (and polypro long johns if it's really cold). The dangerous thing (which really does kill) is to go out and work up a sweat in cotton on a chilly day, then have nothing else to change into when you find yourself stuck outside and start to cool down. Boots... every boot manufacturer builds their boots on a "last", which is basically a metal foot they form the leather around. How closely the last matches your own foot determines how well the boots will fit. Once you find a bootmaker whose boots fit your feet, chances are all of their boots will fit. In my case (I have fairly narrow feet), I've found that Merrell boots fit me... I can mail order Merrell boots in my size and I know they'll fit. OTOH. I've never tried on a Vasque boot that fit... but my hiking buddy (who has wider feet) swears by them, and buys nothing else.

"You need to wait here until [whoever] arrives." "Am I under arrest?" "No." "Then I'm leaving." Know your rights!

Magellan 2000 (four channel); as others said it could be tough to get and maintain a satellite lock... and occasionally it'd give me a position hundreds of miles off (fortunately it was always obvious). Eventually the button cover cracked and water got inside; although it would turn on after it dried out it never again would lock on any satellite. After the Magellan died I did without for awhile, and learned how incredibly useful an altimeter can be in the mountains if you don't have a GPS (I had an Avocet altimeter watch that I used for paragliding, which also died due to water when I had a water landing). Garmin Geko 301... a great little GPS, which I still have. The compass is nice for geocaching and hiking off trail, and the altimeter is nice for flying. I upgraded because the tiny screen keeps getting smaller as my eyes age. I still use it for pargliding, though, to log my flights. Garmin 60 CSx... What can I say? Decent size and clearly readable screen, maps, ability to receive aeronautical data (for ultralight flying) through my own hacks, topo maps... perhaps the perfect GPS (this year).

That's not a reason to hate snakes who are just protecting themselves, but it's a reason to be more careful.

Start out simple... "Whatcha doing?" "Looking for a geocache." "Oh, cool!" (more people than you might think have at least heard of it) or "A what?" (an unknown word just doesn't register) "A survey marker" "Oh." Re clipboards and hard hats... I've never needed to try it, I stick to the woods and forests, but a tape measure might be a good idea. Two American POW's in WWII Germany escaped with only civilian clothes and a tape measure... they started measuring around the prison camp, worked their way to the gate, whereupon the guards obliging opened the gate, and they measured their way right on through. Traveling across Germany to the border, any time anybody paid any attention to them, the whipped out the tape measure and started measuring anything in site... lamp posts, curb heights, whatever. They made it all the way home.

"Captain, according to my calculations the cache is 63.7 meters from here, probably under that pile of large styrofoam rocks."

Alas, confirmed by Garmin today:

That's not the issue. I have no problem with getting the POI's to the GPS, and I have reasons for handling individual files the way I'm doing it. But that has nothing to do with the issue of getting them into Mapsource, which I can't seem to do at all.

I used POILoader to create a bunch of custom POI's. If I save it as a file, then copy that file to my GPS in mass storage mode, or use POILoader to send it directly to the GPS, it works fine (I usually use the former method as I can rename them and then have multiple poi files without overwriting them when I add a new one). POILoader also has a third option, "send to Mapsource". If I try that, I can't see how to get them to show up in Mapsource. I see that it creates a .gpi file in c:\documents and settings\user\application dat\Garmin\CustomPOIs, but I see no option to load that file into Mapsource. Oddly, too, the file created by this method is slightly larger than the one created by either of the first two methods.

Also see this thread.

Magellan 2000; dead but I haven't convinced myself to throw it out yet. Geko 301; was my primary but now replaced by the new 60CSx for everything except paramotoring. 60CSx; everything except paramotoring.

Yeah, I looked at the one from POI factory before I started. It's not up to date; it's from 2006 and includes just name and location; whereas mine is current as of when you download the source file from the FAA, and includes elevation, airport type, frequencies, fuel availability, contact phone number, and optional comments.

Garmin tech support has confirmed that there is a four line limit. Here's a new question: Is there any way to automatically copy a new .gpi file to the GPSr without putting the unit into mass storage mode? I realize that Garmin's POILoader can do it automatically, and I personally have no problem with using mass storage mode and moving files and folders around, but I'm writing an application (I know this isn't geocaching related) to automatically create POI files with airport information from available FAA databases, and I'd like to completely automate the process... currently my program processes the information into .csv files, invokes POILoader to create the .gpi file, using custom icons, renames it to "airfields.gpi" (I don't want to overwrite existing POI files), but I'd like to automatically copy it to the GPSr as the last step after it's been renamed. If there are any pilots here who would like to play with and comment on a preliminary version of the program (you need to be comfortable with moving files and folders around, there is no installer, etc., yet), please PM me.

A couple of times I've had a problem with a search. I was looking for specific information related to Garmin POIs, but when I try to search the forum for "POI", I get: Now, I could search for "point of interest", but most people just call them POI's. I can understand some reasons for restricting searching for short words, but I think 3 characters or more would be a better choice than 4. For that matter, including "img" as a prohibited word also seems silly, as Garmin .img files are related to common issues that people have with their GPS receivers.

Try Pfranc.

No. Well, maybe some do but most don't.

Maps are stored only on the card, in one single .img file. Nothing but the basemap is stored in the unit itself. Any time you send a map to the unit, it overwrites whatever was already there on the card. Go back into Mapsource and again send [only] CN files to the GPS; this will wipe the Ibycus maps from the .img file and you will be left with only CN. AFAIK a master reset won't touch anything on the card.

Interesting, that's good to know. Thanks.

Re compass and bettery drain: I haven't had my 60CSx for long enough to say for sure, but I know that the effect on battery life was dramatic when I was using the Geko 301. I could have sworn there was something about that in the manual, but I jsut looked and couldn't find it. I have seen it mentioned on a number of other websites, though. Of course if you have it set to switch from compass to track when you're moving, then the compass isn't on all the time, so battery life should improve.

You can set your GPS to switch from compass to heading at a selectable speed, so it doesn't use the compas until, say, you're moving less than 1 mph for 5 seconds, or whatever you choose. The compas does suck down the batteries, though, so I always leave it turned off, turn it on briefly to check the direction, then turn it off again.

Maps are nice, but the OP said he would always have a waterproofed map and compass. Anybody who thinks that "coordinates are simply worthless numbers" needs to learn a bit more. Setting the GPS to UTM along with a gridded topo map gives you a very good picture of where you are. I used a non mapping Geko 301 quite happily for several years until my aging eyeballs demanded a larger screen. That said, the satelitte reception of my new 60CSx is far better than the Geko. It has an external antenna connection, but that's not too useful in the woods; external antennas are more for vehicles where the unit itself isn't where it has a clear view of the sky. The newer Garmins with the SIRFStar III chipset do much better under the trees than the older models. Not sure what cell phone coverage has to do with it? Even with the best GPS, though, I wouldn't ever put myself in a position where I was completely relying on it to get me out. Batteries and electronics do fail, so if you can't find your way out with just a map and compass then you shouldn't be there.

One other difference is that waypoints store elevation and time (when they were created) information while POI's do not.

Yes, in my [residential] area, the POI database shows a bunch of businesses that are clearly not residential businesses (you're not going to be looking for a part time caterer working out of her house when you're on the road craving a quick burger. Only conclusion it's from phone book records.