Mike Hongisto
04-30-2012, 01:20 PM
I was recently asked by one of our chapter members “What’s the best GPS to buy?”. A couple pilots chimed in and suggested one of “Gxxxxx’s” products. Normally I would have agreed but I think times have changed. Less expensive, easier to use and more capable GPS solutions are available for download on your smartphone.
If you don’t have one of the latest smartphones and hate the idea of upgrading to an expensive cellphone service plan (mine’s $85 per month), consider a Tablet instead. Tablets don’t need a cellphone service plan. As a result they lack some of the communication features of a smartphone, such as, no real time TAF’s, METAR’s, TFR’s, and weather radar. Make sure your Tablet is GPS enabled, however, or else you'll just have a fancy map (the same is true for a smartphone).
To read about my own smartphone GPS experience click here (http://www.1221.eaachapter.org/documents/GPS Navigation on Your Cellphone pdf.pdf). This will bring you to a post off our EAA Chapter 1221 Website.
Finally, if you own an Apple product, ForeFlight (http://foreflight.com/) is excellent GPS product that will work for you. At $75 it’s a good navigation solution, just not quite the $50 per year bargain that Naviator (http://www.naviatorapp.com/default.aspx) offers the Android crowd. With either product, and whether using a smartphone or tablet, you’ll have a powerful GPS solution that comes with automatic software upgrades and charting updates. And you’ll never get stuck with an obsolete, unsupported, un-updateable GPS again!
Mike Hongisto
President – EAA Chapter 1221
HongistoMichael@aol.com (HongistoMichael@gmail.com)
If you don’t have one of the latest smartphones and hate the idea of upgrading to an expensive cellphone service plan (mine’s $85 per month), consider a Tablet instead. Tablets don’t need a cellphone service plan. As a result they lack some of the communication features of a smartphone, such as, no real time TAF’s, METAR’s, TFR’s, and weather radar. Make sure your Tablet is GPS enabled, however, or else you'll just have a fancy map (the same is true for a smartphone).
To read about my own smartphone GPS experience click here (http://www.1221.eaachapter.org/documents/GPS Navigation on Your Cellphone pdf.pdf). This will bring you to a post off our EAA Chapter 1221 Website.
Finally, if you own an Apple product, ForeFlight (http://foreflight.com/) is excellent GPS product that will work for you. At $75 it’s a good navigation solution, just not quite the $50 per year bargain that Naviator (http://www.naviatorapp.com/default.aspx) offers the Android crowd. With either product, and whether using a smartphone or tablet, you’ll have a powerful GPS solution that comes with automatic software upgrades and charting updates. And you’ll never get stuck with an obsolete, unsupported, un-updateable GPS again!
Mike Hongisto
President – EAA Chapter 1221
HongistoMichael@aol.com (HongistoMichael@gmail.com)