Yes, another Garmin/Avidyne comparison video

[midlifeflyer]

My third. This one on intercepting an assigned course or radial to a VOR or waypoint. 

Don't know whether there will be any more once things get back to normal. I've learned to enormously respect the folks who do YouTube videos regularly. Mine are pretty  simple but  there's a huge time commitment to creating and editing even an 8-10 minute video.

 

 

[MoonFlyer68]

Really good video. Gives me a better visual understanding of the OBS mode.

[McMooney]

Wow, this was actually helpful.  I have an older GNS480 and the instructions are still spot on.  I've always been thrown into wth mode whenever I've received crsto/crsfrom instructions

Edited June 7, 2020 by McMooney

[midlifeflyer]

2 hours ago, McMooney said:

Wow, this was actually helpful.  I have an older GNS480 and the instructions are still spot on.  I've always been thrown into wth mode whenever I've received crsto/crsfrom instructions

I'll return the "wow". I'm surprised it was helpful.  I never flew enough with a 480 to understand its flow and was not intending my video to apply to it since it wasn't originally a Garmin product. Does it actually work like the later units in all three functions?

I received a comment to the user waypoint video saying the 480 worked more like the Avidyne in that function.

[Neshi]

Nice learned something new with the course to feature of the GTN

[midlifeflyer]

Just now, Hyett6420 said:

What an excellent video.  Clear precise and not too “over informative” which I find so many videos are.  Your accent and diction is calm and delivered, not “sales” ey, ie  not full on in your face, again like so many other instruction videos.  Really well done, loved it.  

Thank you for those very kind remarks. One of my goals is to keep it relatively short and clear. I guess my experience with public speaking (pilot and lawyer seminars, not to mention jury trials)  helps. It nice someone noticed.

[gsxrpilot]

Excellent work, as always. Thanks, and looking forward to the next one!

[midlifeflyer]

On 6/7/2020 at 9:07 PM, gsxrpilot said:

Excellent work, as always. Thanks, and looking forward to the next one!

Thank you for that.

I have been surprised by "thank you" comments from people who didn't know they had that functionality in their own units.

(Although the most surprising comment was from someone who insists that flying a VOR radial with GPS is not allowed).

Whether there will be others or not depends on finding the time as things begin to open up and other activities begin again.

In the meantime, I'm happy to take suggestions for subjects. I think you see what I am aiming at. Something other than a basic entering  a flight plan or loading an approach. 

[Rmag]

@midlifeflyer well done video.  I never really use OBS in the GTN 750 because “Course To” is much simpler and direct a solution. 

Have you thought of any other normal use of OBS in the GTN other than course intercepts?

[hypertech]

There's an easier way to do this on the GTN.  At 5:44 in the video, when you pick the VOR, then touch "Course To" and put in the vector you want.  Intercept it and it will continue sequencing with no messing around with OBS mode.

[midlifeflyer]

2 hours ago, hypertech said:

There's an easier way to do this on the GTN.  At 5:44 in the video, when you pick the VOR, then touch "Course To" and put in the vector you want.  Intercept it and it will continue sequencing with no messing around with OBS mode.

You must have stopped watching at that point   Course to begins at about 7:45. 

[hypertech]

9 minutes ago, midlifeflyer said:

You must have stopped watching at that point   Course to begins at about 7:45. 

I apparently have the attention span of a gnat.

[midlifeflyer]

3 hours ago, Rmag said:

@midlifeflyer well done video.  I never really use OBS in the GTN 750 because “Course To” is much simpler and direct a solution. 

Have you thought of any other normal use of OBS in the GTN other than course intercepts?

I gave it some thought.   As I said in the video,  I have not seen a course from without any destination at all from ATC.  There are two "buts" I can think of.

One is in training. I still remember having to intercept radials outbound and even (cringe!!!) NDB bearings outbound. But those were training exercises, not something I've seen in the real world. 

The other one is not completely unusual. There are clearances in some parts of the country which include a course from a VOR to intercept an airway. There's really no "To" for that.  A great example was one of the comments to the video. Although here referred it it as a heading, its a course from to intercept an airway: LAS BLD BLD080 V562 PGS. 

It can be done a number of ways. One is "pure OBS mode" in the Garmin, doing OBS mode just as you get to BLD, flying the extended OBS courseline manually in heading mode and switching back again. Probably the worst method.

The second is creating a user waypoint for the intercept, pretty much like the first video I did. That's what I would do on the ground.

The third is  just using a bearing pointer or #2 NAV VOR.

[midlifeflyer]

6 minutes ago, hypertech said:

I apparently have the attention span of a gnat.

I guess my attempt to keep it 8-10 minutes doesn't work for everyone

Where to put the "course to" segment was literally the last decision I made. Putting it immediately after OBS Mode made obvious sense - see here's a better way. But I ultimately decided to do caparison of similar functions before going on to "here's something completely different" since the IFD doesn't have that (but it has an OBS mode which really has elements of both). Could have gone either way.

[Rmag]

@midlifeflyer just curious over all which unit do you prefer between the two and why?

[midlifeflyer]

10 hours ago, Rmag said:

@midlifeflyer just curious over all which unit do you prefer between the two and why?

I don't have a good answer. I think they are both great boxes. 

Problem is, I have far more years and hours of experience with Garmin. 430 came out in 1998 and I don't recall it being much later that I flew with one, so I'm guessing 20 years of Garmin. That kind of familiarity leads to a strong subjective flow bias (which many label  "intuitive")  in its favor. OTOH, my only in-flight IFD experience is with a friend who has one in his Bonanza and with whom I periodically do some instrument dual. First time, the difference in flow confused me. Being a bit geeky about these things, that bothered me so I grabbed the apps and started teaching myself. That (and time on my hands and a bit of fun playing with the video software) led to these. I'm actually surprised how well they have been received. 

Let's put it this way. I wish I had regular access to an airplane with an IFD. At this point, if I were buying an airplane, GTN vs IFD would be a very minor factor. If I owned an airplane or was otherwise part of an upgrade decision, I would still need to know a lot more than I do.