Re: GPS Interface Software

[Amos Shapira <amos@gezernet.co.il>]

On Mon, April 12 1999, "D.F.S." <dfs@xmission.com> wrote:
|> 
|> |   I've noticed one topic that hasn't come up on the list yet; GPS
|> 
|> Not sure how much this is relevant to this forum, so I think any
|> further discussion should be kept away from here, 
|First off, I gess I must be mistaken as to the intent of the mailing list.
|I thought it was all about planes, computers and the linux OS.
|I think This is a perfect subject along those lines.

OK, I just hope we don't annoy anyone.

|A laptop or palmtop or motherboard built into a metal case and mounted
|under the seats in the plane running linux could do incredible
|things with the info the GPS can provide.

Yes, sure.

I suppose as a glider (aka sail-plane) pilot, especially with club
gliders (i.e. no private glider to stick my babies inside
permanently), and with power, space (not just volume, but take a
moment to remember how a glider pilot sits and try to find a place for
the display) and sometimes weight limits being an issue, I look at
quite the opposite extreme of the scale - lightweight, small,
self-sufficient (i.e. no or very limited external battery) and
hopefully lap-mountable box which can help me calculate from current
data (IAS, TAS (=> wind), height, vertical speed, glider data, average
thermal characteristics encountered so far and predicted by forecast
etc.) where can I hope to reach from my current position.

I'm relatively a beginner (just over 100 hours) and with no
experience in advanced gliding and flight calculations (just did a
60Km mission in a Ka-8, though I usually fly PW-5's), but I see how
such data can come useful in a nice gliding day in general and in
competitions in particular.

My point is that I'm in what might be viewed by others in this forum
to be a "niche" - I need small, lightweight, PORTABLE, computer with
GPS capabilities and which can calculate real-time data specific for
flying gliders.  Looks like a PalmPilot with this card might give a
good, partial, answer to such needs.

|A $50.00 laptop from someplace like EBAY and $100 for a GPS rcvr and
|antenna could give you a realtime, moving display system using LINUX

But the size and other attributes aren't acceptable, unless you have
something in mind I'm not aware of.

|I thought that was one of the goals of the list.

I hope you are right.

Cheers,

--Amos

--Amos Shapira                    | "Of course Australia was marked for
133 Shlomo Ben-Yosef st.          |  glory, for its people had been chosen
Jerusalem 93 805                  |  by the finest judges in England."
ISRAEL        amos@gezernet.co.il |                     -- Anonymous
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