New Garmin GPSMAP 76S

Hi,

Maybe someone has already mentioned this new GPS here, but check-out the new (available in April) Garmin GPSMAP 76S. http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap76s/index.html

The S stands for 'Sensor'. It has an electronic barograph in it! If it records altitude and lat. and long. it could be very interesting. Is there any reason this should not be approved for badges and records by the IGC? As long as software can download files to IGC files that should be OK... shouldn't it?

By the way, I realize this newsgroup is for soaring and not GPS's, but this just seems very interesting to me.

I wonder what it will cost and what the specs. are.

Paul Remde

Because the lack of electronic signature, which enable anybody to feed the software converting to IGC files with fake data.

How about treating like a Baro. If it was put out of the pilots reach and sealed by an observer, now what is the problem?

Garmin is coming out with another new product the FRS Rhino. It allows one to both locate and talk to another person with the device. Would this 'homing' info be a benefit in beginning team flying?

I guess your going to have to draw a map for me. If the pilot doesn't touch it, how does he recalibrate it?

Garmin receivers with altimeters have an autocalibration mode. If it is on, the reading is is automatically adjusted based on long term averaging of GPS altitude. The end result is that the effective calibration will change over the course of the flight, which makes it unacceptable for badge/record work.

Autocalibration must be turned off to provide something approximating a barograph-style output. In this mode, the difference between the pressure altitude reading and a manually entered elevation is used to add a fixed offset to the altimeter reading. An OO could turn autocalibration off, enter the known elevation for that location, and seal the receiver in a box. The problem is that the altimeter offset is likely different than it would have been during a previous or subsequent visit to a calibration lab. As a result, the existing procedures for correcting recorded altitudes using a calibration chart would not work, and it's not clear that it is possible to come up with a procedure which will provide accurate/consistent results.