308man

They might, but helicopters flying at low level in poor visibility seldom depend upon GPS to know where they are. ASR helicopters navigate visually with at least two crew members looking out of the window. Royal Air Force and Royal Navy rescue helicopters are not fitted with GPS. Just to correct the all knowledgable 'Forrester', RAF and Navy Search and Rescue helicopters DO have Gps as do the Coastguard.

Had to reply - the MOD/Military issue off the shelf 'civilian' GPSr to there personnel as it is the cheapest option and probably the best. During my time in the forces of HM Government, various Garmin products were issued, most notably GPS12/12XL and GPS V delux. Garmin also do a range of E-Trex just for the boys in Iraq and very good they are too. I have also used dedicated military Gps that have an accuracy to 1Meter but I don't think that Rockwell will sell them on the civvy market.

Always use WGS 84. If you get lost and need to contact the emergency services, ie Search and Rescue teams, WGS 84 is fine because that is the system used to programme the GPS and INS (Inertial Navigation System) used on ALL the rescue helicopters in the UK. Most mountain rescue teams use both co-ords.

Welcome to the Club. I am fairly new too and should have said hello sooner to the forums. I have been 'lurking' in the background for a couple of months so its about time i said a big hello to everyone out there for keeping me interested and amused. Steve

I have been caching since the end of December 04 and find that my Garmin GPS 12 is just great. Inputting way points is easy and battery life superb-24hrs + . Have used it in all sorts of out of the way places from the UK to the Deserts of South Africa/Namibia with out a hitch. For ease and reliability its the GPS of choice for me. When navigating by road I have been using a Garmin GPS V+. The only down side to the GPS V+ is the limited memory, 19mb of down loadable maps from City Select. OK if you are staying in a certain area for a while, but not much good if you are travelling from one end of the country to the other. Its also very good off road and reasonably priced. Check out gps warehouse at www.gpsw.co.uk for some good deals. Thats my 2 penny worth. Steve