Back in January I bought a Palm Treo 650 through Cingular (it's a phone with a lot of PalmPilot/PDA characteristics). The phone's a little big, but that's only because of the screen size (I like big screens and I cannot lie, all you other brothers can't deny). Features include e-mail, internet (for real internet, not the stupid stuff on most phones), a great addressbook/calender, instant messaging, Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint, Adobe Acrobat, Madden 06 (it was only $20!), still/video camera with great resolution, a ton more programs that you can download for free or very cheap (I've got about 10 extra progs), etc etc etc.
So, that's great already, especially for only paying $60 (refurbished, yes, but you can't tell... AT ALL. Man I love Cingular's deals).
But I wanted more from it, even after all of that. So I asked myself, "What can I do to push the limits of the phone, as well as the limits of technology, and make this thing do something useful."
Well, I'm sure most of you know that I'm a pilot (or at least I think so?). When you're up there all alone, flying across state borders, it can get confusing. You look down and it all looks the same (I've spent over an hour trying to find an airport that was less than a mile away from where I was). When I got my Multi-Engine Rating and graduated to much larger/nicer aircraft, we had the luxury of a dual-GPS system. Now that I'm learning to be a flight instructor, I'm back into the smaller planes (with no such luxury).
So, hey... this thing is basically a computer with a calling feature, so maybe, just maybe it can help me out by giving my data from a GPS. Right? =]
After a few weeks of looking around and reading up on the topic, I made a few purchases. And, today, it all came in the mail.
So now my Treo 650 cell phone has a program called FlightMaster ($90), I bought a little arm that suctions to the windshield to hold my phone ($30), and I purchased a Bluetooth GPS receiver ($110). So for $230 I now have a complete GPS system. I dare anyone to find an aviation GPS with moving-map and color screen for less than $500
I suction-cup my GPS receiver (about the size of a normal flip-phone) to my dash, I suction-cup my cellphone holder to the windshield and twist it right in plain view, and if I feel like going through the extra trouble, I stick the extra-long antenna for my GPS onto the roof (magnetized). The GPS acquires the satellites, downloads the information, and then talks to my phone wirelessly (Bluetooth). The program starts up on my phone, and bingo, moving-map with my exact location, my heading, speed, distance and ETA to my destination, and a AI (attitude indicator, which is an instrument in the plane that shows your position relative to the horizon... easiest way to situate yourself).
This thing is totally amazing. It's accurate (minus the altitude, but I think I have a hunch on how to fix that... it reports anywhere from about 250-300ft driving around town, but I know Central Florida isn't quite THAT high up).
Also, when you're done flying around, you can come home and download the path you took onto your computer as a KML file. The KML file opens in GoogleEarth, and you can see where you flew (in 3-D, altitude changes and all)!
Technology these days just amazes me. And I grew up in the computer-era!
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Here's some pics!
The GPS receiver, which easily fits into the palm of your hand
The movable-map.
Compass (heading), altitude, speed, distance/heading/ETA to next waypoint
Attitude Indicator (showing a slow right turn with a descent)
List of the nearest airports in case of emergency (includes all info about the airport such as frequencies, runways lengths, etc)
