Garmin Forerunner GPS

[rlweber]

Does anybody have experience use the Garmin Forerunner wrist GPS in a hanggliding or paragliding context?

Randy

[John Simon]

Hi Randy,

A buddy of mine uses a similar Foretrex wrist GPS and loves it as a backup and for info. I'll point him to this thread.


John

[BrianL]

I used mine once or twice a couple years ago just to see. I remember, it told me my speed, distance, and I think elevation. Its was okay I guess. I don't know how acturate it is for flying though.

[jimrooney]

I have a ForeTrex 201 that I fly with.
I absolutely love it.

There are a few "Pages" you can have it display, but I have mine set on the numbers, with...
Altitude, Speed and Vertical Speed

There's a 301 and a 401 out these days, but they use AAA batteries.
I'm a freak apparently, because I love the lithium ion battery that's built into the 201.

The 401 has a barametric altimiter as well.

I've had it for a bunch of years now. I'm on my third one. 1st one eventually died (I'm not easy on equipment, and it did last a looooong time). The second one a buddy lost (and replaced).

If anything happens to this one, I'll buy an other.
The 201s are getting hard to acquire, so I may get stuck with a 401 at some point.

Hrm.
Stuff to know...
It's display only... no audio (which I like)
It's not as fast as a flytech, but it's fast enough (IMHO)
I use SeeYou to download the track logs, though I think it can be done easily now with loads of free stuff out there (hello Google!)

I have an Ascent wrist vario as well.
It's about $100 more and doesn't have any GPS stuff.
I like it, but if it breaks, I won't get an other. The ForeTrex does just fine thank you.

Jim

[hefalump]

I whole hardheadedly concur with Jim's assessment of the ForeTrex 201 as I fly with one too. The Li-ion battery is good but it does require charging after a couple of 4 hour plus flights. I use it as my backup GPS track for Comps and could be used for navigation if the GPS in the Flytec 6030 was to ever go down during a flight.

The ForeTrex 201 can be set up with auto next waypoint based upon a user defined radius to a waypoint very similar to the 6030. It also has a count down timer which is helpful in the start cylinder.

I may consider getting the 401 soon as I like the idea of the pressure altimeter. I also like the use of AAA batteries as they can simply be replaced rather than having to charge them. A couple of times I have forgotten to charge the 201 and flew with low battery. It made the flight but it would have been nice to simply replace a depleted battery. A good compromise will be using AAA Nickel Metal Hydrides. I will have to down load the 401 manual prior to purchase to ensure that none of the features I like have been removed from the newest version.

One little tid bit … one of the higher level people at Garmin is a HG pilot and he always tries to slip in features that pilots would like into the firmware.

JD

[hefalump]

Just read through the manual for the ForeTrex 401. Looks good, the new model has retained all the features I like and added a few more. Two of which is L/D over ground and L/D required to next waypoint. It seems that a couple more useful HG or PG functions have been included. The countdown timer can be programmed to start over once expired. So you can set it for 15 Minutes, and when that runs down it starts another 15 minute count down, very helpful in the start circle.

It also has a more sensitive Barometric altimeter and a quicker to acquire GPS. This is supposedly for the JumpMaster function for Skydiving so that it acquires GPS lock quickly as you exit the plane.

I would like to find out if there is any way to show airspace on a moving map … but not likely

RitzCamera.com has them for $176 no tax and free shipping. Foretrex 301 and 201 are significantly less if you don’t need all the functions

JD