Balimbras

Here's another tip. I learned two of the lessons mentioned here the hard way; turn off WAAS and 'lock to roads' was a pretty easy lesson, thought I was clever reading the manual and figuring that one out. Using (or NOT using, rather) the navigation feature to hunt a cache took me about 2 hours and 5 km of aimless wandering to figure out. Now the tip. I've had great luck using the compass in my Vista and a simple triangulation technique to home in on a cache. The Vista has a patch antenna, so it's not terribly sensitive in the bush. I've found that I can stand on top of a cache and watch the little icon move around in circles as the satellite geometry changes. And the distance will also change, from .3M to 20M while I'm standing at the cache. Anyway, what I do now, is as I get within about 100 ft (30M), take a bearing, and eyeball a landmark at what I figure is the likely spot. Then continue on a bearing that takes me a little past the cache but at a right angle, and take another bearing. I can usually spot where my two bearings cross, and so far, that's always been within inches of the cache location. Seems like the feature that draws my eye as I take these bearings turns out to be the feature the hider has used to locate the site as well. This has been a bit tough in dense bush (two caches like that so far) but has worked on the 8 caches I've found since first trying it.

quote:Note that Canada's population is almost exclusively along the U.S.border Bit of trivia: If the U.S. moved their border 100 miles north, 99% of Canadians would become Americans. Forget where I got that, but this picture sorta lends credence to the statement.

quote:Note that Canada's population is almost exclusively along the U.S.border Bit of trivia: If the U.S. moved their border 100 miles north, 99% of Canadians would become Americans. Forget where I got that, but this picture sorta lends credence to the statement.

Every airport has to know it's elevation. If there's a municipal or county airport nearby, drive out there and use that as a benchmark. Since the altimeter in the Vista is barometric, you will need to do this every time you want it to be accurate, since barometric pressure varies with the weather. Your local airport will have a weather office that will tell you the barometric pressure as well, usually on a taped weather announcement line. Easiest for me is to simply use the GPS altitude to automatically calibrate the altimeter. I suppose the calibrate function steps you through the methods in the order it does because they are of decreasing accuracy. A physical check at a known elevation would be most accurate, knowing the barometric pressure would be second, and the GPS would be last. Isn't GPS altitude a bit less accurate than horizontal? Like 30M or so?

Dunno 'bout the topos, but I have the 'Metroguide with Roads and Recreation' for Canada, and I can load pieces of both sets as well as the enhanced Canadian basemap all at the same time. The detail setting in the Vista's setup seems to turn off or on some layers that are dependant on which map set they reside on, but that's actually a good thing. One thing I've found; there is an error between the Metroguide and Enhanced basemap that results in a couple of roads in my area having apparent breaks in them where the map sets change. S'pose I should send a bug report in to Garmin.

Dunno 'bout the topos, but I have the 'Metroguide with Roads and Recreation' for Canada, and I can load pieces of both sets as well as the enhanced Canadian basemap all at the same time. The detail setting in the Vista's setup seems to turn off or on some layers that are dependant on which map set they reside on, but that's actually a good thing. One thing I've found; there is an error between the Metroguide and Enhanced basemap that results in a couple of roads in my area having apparent breaks in them where the map sets change. S'pose I should send a bug report in to Garmin.

I searched a cache over the weekend with a 2/2 rating. ** Possible spoiler here ** The cache was easy enough to spot, the terrain was certainly a 2, easy to walk, not far off a gravel path, no steep inclines, etc. However, the cache itself was located in a position that required climbing up about 10 feet, to a position situated over a steep 10 to 20 foot dropoff. A fall from that location would have been deadly. How do you rate a cache where the site is easy to get to, the cache is easy to find, but retrieval carries a large risk factor? Incidentally, I logged this one as 'found', took pictures of it, even tho' I was too chicken to climb up and fetch it.

I searched a cache over the weekend with a 2/2 rating. ** Possible spoiler here ** The cache was easy enough to spot, the terrain was certainly a 2, easy to walk, not far off a gravel path, no steep inclines, etc. However, the cache itself was located in a position that required climbing up about 10 feet, to a position situated over a steep 10 to 20 foot dropoff. A fall from that location would have been deadly. How do you rate a cache where the site is easy to get to, the cache is easy to find, but retrieval carries a large risk factor? Incidentally, I logged this one as 'found', took pictures of it, even tho' I was too chicken to climb up and fetch it.

I shopped around for a while, and noticed that the Wal-Marts and C/T stores in Hamilton all had different units, probably old stock. Dowsar Yachts is the listed Garmin dealer, but I didn't even bother dropping in there cuz they add a 20% 'boaters premium' to everything they sell. (past experience) I finally found www.gpscentral.ca and bought online. Got what I wanted, for a pretty good price.

I dunno, maybe I'm simple, but the few times I've done this I simply uploaded (downloaded?) the track from my vista into Mapsource, then traced it using the route tool. Made it easy to select more appropriate waypoints than the track contained. Unless of course you don't have a Mapsource CD, in which case I guess the suggestion is moot.

I'm finding I need to calibrate my compass often. I've made a habit of calibrating every time I head out of the car and begin walking. I carry a pocket compass as well, and verify calibration to be certain the vista's bearing is accurate. I've also set up the Vista to show magnetic heading, so the Vista and magnetic compass agree when calibration works. Since you'd have to hold a magnetic compass level to use it, holding the vista level is no hardship for me. In fact, the Vista's compass behaves very much like a magnetic pocket compass, reacting to level, nearby metal and electrical wiring. Here's a tip; if the calibration is out, the unit says "hold level" almost continuously. Normally that display goes away when you're holding it normally. As the previous posts say, turn off the compass when driving and biking. It's only useful when on foot. Or rowing maybe.

I'm finding I need to calibrate my compass often. I've made a habit of calibrating every time I head out of the car and begin walking. I carry a pocket compass as well, and verify calibration to be certain the vista's bearing is accurate. I've also set up the Vista to show magnetic heading, so the Vista and magnetic compass agree when calibration works. Since you'd have to hold a magnetic compass level to use it, holding the vista level is no hardship for me. In fact, the Vista's compass behaves very much like a magnetic pocket compass, reacting to level, nearby metal and electrical wiring. Here's a tip; if the calibration is out, the unit says "hold level" almost continuously. Normally that display goes away when you're holding it normally. As the previous posts say, turn off the compass when driving and biking. It's only useful when on foot. Or rowing maybe.

Well, I've been out a time or two, and have learned a thing or two. Hoping to get that up to 3 or 4 over the next few days. Yeah, Alan, you set the display type on the navigation page, choose between 'bearing' and 'course'. Bearing is the one most typically used, and the default for the Vista. I thought I was being clever changing it to 'course' without realizing the changes that the Vista assumed in basic nav function. I realized what was happening when I did just that, hit 'goto' again from a new location, and the needle would show, accurately, the current bearing to target, but moving left or right didn't change the heading indicated, the cdi showed distance off track, and the whole display would rotate showing new heading. That last part is the confusing bit, unlike a VOR, the Vista's CDI display rotates to show compass heading, not bearing to target. When I learned to fly, the instrument that I used to operate the VOR navigation system had a display like the Vista's CDI. Behaved the same way, too, although I expected something different from the Vista. Basically, in a CDI, you dial up the course you want, and the centre needle shows how many miles off TRACK you are. This indication increases if you are also off HEADING. I expected the Vista to operate like a VSI (?) or Vertical Situation Indicator, which is the dashboard display some autopilots use. In this gizmo, the needle that the CDI is part of will also rotate to indicate BEARING to target. I'm still a little fuzzy on the exact mechanics of the Vista CDI, but I can report that the Bearing function works like a charm for caching. That's the key, Jeep, when it's set up to display bearing to target (bearing selected in the Navigation window) then you just follow that needle right to the cache. Worked for me 3 times out of 4 so far, going to try #4 again later this week. Cheers!

Well, I've been out a time or two, and have learned a thing or two. Hoping to get that up to 3 or 4 over the next few days. Yeah, Alan, you set the display type on the navigation page, choose between 'bearing' and 'course'. Bearing is the one most typically used, and the default for the Vista. I thought I was being clever changing it to 'course' without realizing the changes that the Vista assumed in basic nav function. I realized what was happening when I did just that, hit 'goto' again from a new location, and the needle would show, accurately, the current bearing to target, but moving left or right didn't change the heading indicated, the cdi showed distance off track, and the whole display would rotate showing new heading. That last part is the confusing bit, unlike a VOR, the Vista's CDI display rotates to show compass heading, not bearing to target. When I learned to fly, the instrument that I used to operate the VOR navigation system had a display like the Vista's CDI. Behaved the same way, too, although I expected something different from the Vista. Basically, in a CDI, you dial up the course you want, and the centre needle shows how many miles off TRACK you are. This indication increases if you are also off HEADING. I expected the Vista to operate like a VSI (?) or Vertical Situation Indicator, which is the dashboard display some autopilots use. In this gizmo, the needle that the CDI is part of will also rotate to indicate BEARING to target. I'm still a little fuzzy on the exact mechanics of the Vista CDI, but I can report that the Bearing function works like a charm for caching. That's the key, Jeep, when it's set up to display bearing to target (bearing selected in the Navigation window) then you just follow that needle right to the cache. Worked for me 3 times out of 4 so far, going to try #4 again later this week. Cheers!

On my first day out I got a little frustrated with my Vista. On the approach, the needle had already turned me around 180 degrees and had me heading away from the site. As I got within 20 meters, I expected to see the needle swing through an arc, allowing me to get a pretty good idea which way to proceed, but it never did. Needless to say, I didn't find the cache. I think today I figured out what was wrong. I was using the GPS navigation screen set up in CDI or Course Deviation mode. In trying this out for close qusrters navigation today, whenever I walked a line parallel to a line through a target waypoint, the needle never swung to point at the waypoint, it maintained a constant direction and course deviation 'cause I was still travelling in a straight line parallel to the line between origin and waypoint. Switching to Bearing indication on the navigation screen gave me what I wanted; as I passed the target, the needle swung and pointed at the target continuously as I passed it. Doh! So obviously when walking an approach to a cache I should be set up in bearing mode. But here's what's nagging me: shouldn't the CDI still swing in the same way as I pass a waypoint? Or should I be sending this puppy back for a check-up? And I thought I knew something about navigation just 'cuz I have a pilot's license. Sheesh... shoulda been a sailor, I guess.

quote:Originally posted by mrcpu:You may not know this but your Armed Forces are know world wide for having more casualties BEFORE the war starts from accidents and more casualties during the war from friendly fire then enemy fire. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You may not know this but Canadas Armed Forces are known world wide for.....uhh....well.....hmmm...hang on i'm getting it.....ahhh nevermind. Now, boys, there's plenty to criticize on both sides of the border. There's far more to be proud of. My advice? "Do not feed the Trolls". In response to the orginal post, that's a pretty awful consequence for such a classic newbie error.

Newspaper article for me, too. Hamilton Spectator here, last week. T'was the last bit of incentive I needed to buy that neat toy I'd been drooling over for a while. Got a Vista within a few days, and I'm heading out on my first search on Good Friday.

Was that your picture in the paper last week? The hat was a giveaway if it was. If so, you're to blame for me topping up my credit card on a spanky new Vista, delivered in less than 24 hours from a wonderful online store in Calgary. The news article was the last little incentive I needed to go buy me that GPS gizmo I'd been coveting for some time now. Thanks for the intro. 'Course, if it wasn't you, never mind. And now, back to your regularly scheduled topic...

Was that your picture in the paper last week? The hat was a giveaway if it was. If so, you're to blame for me topping up my credit card on a spanky new Vista, delivered in less than 24 hours from a wonderful online store in Calgary. The news article was the last little incentive I needed to go buy me that GPS gizmo I'd been coveting for some time now. Thanks for the intro. 'Course, if it wasn't you, never mind. And now, back to your regularly scheduled topic...

I just had my Vista delivered today, so just went through this myself. To stick in a waypoint, hold down the 'click stick' until the waypoint window pops up. It'll pop up with your current coordinates, but you can cursor down using the stick and highlight the coordinate field. Press the stick, and enter the new coordinates. To go to that waypoint, go to the 'find' screen, click the stick on the menu gadget and then click on 'waypoint', then 'by name'. Clicking on the waypoint you want will start navigation in the 'go to' mode, and if you go to your compass screen you'll see the compass now has a big arrow on it which will be pointing to the waypoint. Bit brief, but I seem to have mine behaving properly. Have fun.