appletree

I bought my first Vista last August, and my second in April. The first is still fine, but when my wife asked to borrow it for a breif trip with some friends, I realized that I didn't want to be without it even for a day. It is so light and easy to use, once you get the hang of it, and it does so many nifty things, I rarely leave home without it. Although it prefers a clearing to achieve an initial fix, it maintains contact quite well under cover. I usually get a reading within 10 feet when I am at a cache site, and often 5 feet or less. I have not used other units, but for me, the Vista leaves little to be desired.

Ok, I read the manual and I tried the help menu, and I still can't understand the contour lines on the Topo maps. What are the intervals? Do they vary from place to place with the relief characteristics as in USGS topos? Why are they such strange numbers, unlike all other topos I have seen? Can the units be changed to meters? Is there any information specifically related to the Topo CDs as opposed to Mapsource generally? Thanks in advance. Appletree

I have used my Vista on several flights and it works great, as long as I can bring it to the window regularly. The calibration trick gives me periodic altitude readings, but far better is using it connected to my Dell laptop running MapSource. I hang the Vista from a suction cup hook on the window and have a large, full color extremely detailed map with a side panel displaying the GPS info including the speed, bearing, and altitude in real time. Zooming in and out is a snap, as is scrolling ahead to see where we will be going. It makes flying a whole new experience.