 |
 |
| Recommended Sites |
 Navgps Pro Navigation Made Easy |
 |
 |
| NavGPS 4.1 Pro for the Pocket PC | |||||||||||
|
Review Date: April 12,2004 Hard to believe but it has been 2 years since we have done a review of this fantastic product. The makers of NavGps have released a greatly enhanced version this month. The most significant change to the program is the new topography data. Labels for cities, lakes, rivers, etc are now available. Via the preferences screen you can select which labels you would like to display. Terrain will be displayed in varying colors depending on your distance from the terrain. Installation: If you are familar with the ease of installing software applications on your PocketPC you should have no trouble installing this software. It is recommended the software be installed on a storage card vs. internal memory. This way if your battery fails but you have external power the application will still run without a re-synch to your PC. A variety of GPS units will work with the software. The most common is a Compact Flash GPS. These are widely available on the Internet. We use the GPS available for sale at FlyNavGPS.Com and it has worked well. Bluetooth compatibility is now available which means a few less wires in the cockpit. Once the default application is installed you will need to install topography maps for your area. These are available for free on the FlyNavGPS website. Flight Planning: Flight planning is very straight forward. Once the NavGPS is running select Plan and the Enter from the menu. An area to enter the data along with a virtual keyboard is then displayed. You may enter in individual waypoints as desired or if flying IFR you may enter in the airways along your route.  Example: KCDH PXR V105 DRK KPRC. This will load any intersections along the route on the airway automatically. This can be very useful if a controller asks your time to the next waypoint or if they give you different routing. An option to enter your route in visually is also available but we find this less convenient. The flight plan may be modified in flight and they can be saved for future use. Flight plans may also be reversed for your return trip. If the software can't find a waypoint entered it will give you a warning and won't let you continue until it has been corrected. Usablilty: We all know it can be difficult to aim your PDA stylus at the screen while in flight. A variety of programmable buttons are available along witht he use of the pda joystick to reduce the use of a stylus in flight. When in any of the map modes it is very easy to get data on any displayed airport of waypoint. Simply tap the airport id and a pop-up box appears. Instant information includes the airport name, frequency, field elevation, and distance. You can select to go direct to the airport, approach (will display options for available runways), or get more information like a complete frequency list, runways, and general overview. Standard Display Options: - You may select to scroll through all screens or choose your favorites. Favorite Features: Flight Plan Info Screen - There is nothing nicer than being able to see the overall status of your flight plan. When will I reach my next waypoint? When will I reach my destination? This is extemely helpful to see if you are on track. From this screen you can select any waypoint to go direct. Nearest Airport Screen - You can select from up to 7 nearest airports. The distance to each airport is displayed. Tabs are also available to select the nearest VOR, Fix. Nav-Data Screen - If you don't need a moving map but would like a large display with waypoint information this is the screen for you. A great backup to DME. Shows Altitude, Ground Speed, Track, Bearing, Distance, Distance off of track, ETA, ETA, Position (Lat, Long) Find Nav by Name - If you don't know the identifier for a particular airport you can use the Find By Name feature. From the Goto menu type the first few letters of the destination. A list with soon appear which you can select from. Example, Lake Havasu City, AZ ID is HII. If you don't remember this type in LAK and it appears in the list. Summary: There are too many features to list. Visit FlyNavGPS web site for more details. Downloading the documentation will give you complete details. We have logged hundreds of hours using this product over the years and have never run into any issues. Best of all a 30-day demo is available. This should give you plenty of time to try the application in your cockpit. A PC version is also available for those who wish to use this with a Tablet PC or laptop. |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
Screen Shots: (Note colors are slightly off due to screen capture software used.) |
|||||||||||
 GPS Status |  EFIS 25mile View |
||||||||||
 40m View with Topo |  65m View with Topo |
||||||||||
 Current Waypoints |  Airport Info Pop-up |
||||||||||
 Nearest Airport Screen |  Nearest VOR's |
||||||||||
 HSI Only |  Text Only |
||||||||||
 North Up |  Track Up |
||||||||||
Hardware Configuration: Dell Axim X5 with Compact Flash GPS and 128mb SD card. Overall we love the Dell Axim handheld. It has strong battery life and having the ability to have both a CF GPS and SD storage card without extra sleeves is a big bonus. The one disadvantage is that most of the new handhelds use a different type of lighting which is not as good in direct sunlight. Our old iPaq 3650 has a better screen. If you don't have an existing handheld and want to only use this in the cockpit you may consider getting a used iPaq on eBay. |
|||||||||||
|
Consult our previous review of the version 3.5 additional details. Consult our previous review of the standard version for additional details. |
|||||||||||
Do not use any data on this site for flight planning purposes.