Travelling Soon!

[amw157]

I will be making a trip from Philadelphia to San Diego very soon, going to take my iQue along!

I have a battery extender. Got tons of spare batteries. Here's what I plan to do:

-- Use battery save mode
-- Disable WAAS
-- Tracks least frequently
-- Turn off backlight

I need some friendly advice.

(1) Do you sit there and hold it near the window the whole flight? That can't be easy to do. Or am I nuts for trying to track the whole 5 hour flight? How do you hold this thing?

(2) Should I use my Gilsson in the airplane? Or will the internal antenna suffice? Or does the Gilsson drain even the battery extender too fast?

(3) I've heard it said that if the screen goes dark because the auto-off fires, that it is STILL tracking the GPS. Is this true?

What else should I be doing to enhance my experience and make this the most fun? I have a laptop with me with MapSource and the whole shebang. I have maps of Philly and San Diego loaded onto the iQue. I've got tons of extra SD space for stuff like tracks and whatnot.

Thanks in advance!
Andy

[jonasolof]

Some airlines won't allow an amplfied external antenna. Those can have a feedback loop and oscillate and thus disturb other electronic equipment including GPS.

[JMckie]

Some airlines may frown on the practice, and there is a win-the-lotto-type chance that you might cause problems for the aircraft but in my ignorance, I once took the external antenna and pinned against the porthole with the shade. People may look at you strangely.

When the GPS is on backlight is off, Betty keeps on tracking. The average fully charged iQue can operate in this manner for about 5 hours. If you turn on the screen and play with it, you'll need your battery extender.

[apersson850]

Battery save mode is good, and that automatically disables WAAS mode.
Having the backlight off is also good.

How often you set it to track is of no importance. Since the iQue uses automatic tracking, which is based upon your progress, it has to check how you are going just as frequently anyway. It's just actual storage of points that doesn't occur that often, but that's something I can assure you'll not see on the current consumption.

When the iQue has turned off the screen, but the GPS is still tracking, you'll see the LED in the power switch flash occasionally, to indicate this mode.

Oh yes, to get any reasonable performance, you do have to have the antenna close to the window. That's NOT very funny for five hours. The question is if it's you or the battery that gives up first.
Another way, on such a long flight, is to track near the beginning and end of the flight (when landing and taking off it's normally forbidden to have any electronics, larger than a watch, turned on). Then also turn it on now and then, say every 20 minutes.
After the flight, save the track to a named track, with the proper times for the beginning and end of your flight. The track saving procedure will automatically connect the pieces you've collected, so that you can view your progress. It will not be as detailed, of course, but on a five hour flight, nothing much happens for several hours anyway.
You can also turn it on if you notice that the aircraft makes a turn. Thus you'll get the points where something did happen logged.

[imanit]

I used my Glisson every time I flew.
They ask you to turn off the Palm-GPS while starting or landing.
The rest of the time no problem.
I had my Glisson attached to the porthole all the time. Nobody looked at me "funny way".....
I did not change settings (WAAS on, normal tracking).
Four pack of AA lasted me whole trip (8H) and I had enough "juce" to track way to the hotel from the airport. I had the light off.
Good luck !!

[jrose1g]

They ask you to turn off the Palm-GPS while starting or landing.

Actually GPS is still in American Airlines list of forbidden devices. I had assumed that all airlines were OK with GPS (hadn't read the section on electronic devices in the AA magazine) when an attendant said she thought I shouldn't be using it, and looked it up. It's clearly stated that GPS is not to be used.

Prior to being asked to turn it off, it worked very well with the internal antena.

[apersson850]

The policy varies from company to company.
Look here (http://gpsinformation.net/airgps/airgps.htm) for more information.

[amw157]

Originally posted by imanit
I had my Glisson attached to the porthole all the time.

How did you attach it? Is there something metal that the magnet can stick to? Did you just bring some tape??

Andy

[imanit]

SUCTION CAPS ON THE MOUNT !!!!

[JMckie]

Originally posted by amw157
How did you attach it? Is there something metal that the magnet can stick to? Did you just bring some tape??

Andy

Just jam it in between the window and the shade. Use a handkerchief for padding.

[ocelli7]

I found that the internal battery worked well, except for one 20 minute spot. You do need to keep it near the window.

So you can do lots of silly things with it, such as determine how far a lake is by setting a waypoint. I found that the Garmin was within 1% or so of the elevation and distance that was announced over by the pilot.

You can also do even more silly things such as determine how close the nearest Starbucks is to your location......

it was definately fun to use on the plane.

ocelli7

[Curious Cat]

Originally posted by ocelli7
I found that the internal battery worked well, except for one 20 minute spot. You do need to keep it near the window.

So you can do lots of silly things with it, such as determine how far a lake is by setting a waypoint. I found that the Garmin was within 1% or so of the elevation and distance that was announced over by the pilot.

You can also do even more silly things such as determine how close the nearest Starbucks is to your location......

it was definately fun to use on the plane.

ocelli7


Just a guess here...did you mean to say internal battery or antenna?

[ocelli7]

yes, thanks.....internal antenna.......it was a blast! (for those of us who like toys)

[apersson850]

I tried something even more silly: To let the iQue autoroute to the destination. Since aircrafts usually don't follow the roads, this lead to six recalculations in a row. After that, the iQue locked up, probably in some kind of protest against its owner.

I didn't try it agan...

[JMckie]

Originally posted by apersson850
I tried something even more silly: To let the iQue autoroute to the destination. Since aircrafts usually don't follow the roads, this lead to six recalculations in a row. After that, the iQue locked up, probably in some kind of protest against its owner.

I didn't try it agan...

That's why you are valued as you as a beta tester. What a crazy thing to do.

[apersson850]

Yes, that's certainly true. But I've been in the programming business for more than 20 years, so I know fairly well how to stress software out of the ordinary limits.
There is an error message in the iQue software today, that can show something like "Route too complex", when the iQue runs out of resources while trying to figure out a route.
Before I discovered that, it simply crashed.

So it does some good, to have people trying the more stupid things. But no beta testing of R4 has commenced yet, at least none I know about.

[rjack22]

I too, am flying soon. In about 10 days! Hooray! I want to use the iQue in flight. I am flying on Delta who supposedly allows GPS.

I have the Glisson suction mount (its in my car but I am going to steal it for the trip) and one of my two Glissons is a short 3ft which I am going to take.

I have the AA battery extender pack and lots of batteries! I think I am good to go!

With the Glisson stuck to the window I shouldn't have a problem being comfortable holding the iQue. I just hope no one objects to the antenna.

[GPSter]

At the risk of being painfully obvious:

- Be sure to pack some type of hotsync device
- Strongly recommend you install a system backup utility, such as BackupMan.

My iQ got zapped (static electricity) while on vacation in Wyoming, and it would have been a useless brick if not for the backup program. And yes, r3 was installed.

[apersson850]

A seat near the window makes GPS use easier, although such seating is in opposition with the frequent flyer's normal preferences.

[jonasolof]

I wonder in what position the Gilsson works best. Held vertically to the window or at an angle - or even horisontally? If held vertically, a small metal groundplane should make it receive satellites overhead better. Probably it doesn't matter.

[JMckie]

If you have a really long cable, you can ask the pilot if you could please mount in on the wing (makes for a good frying pan effect).
Of course there a just as likely to have you ride on the wing yourself, but no harm in asking. :)

[apersson850]

You mean opening the window, just a little, to let the cable out, is no good idea??:rolleyes:

[Curious Cat]

Originally posted by apersson850
You mean opening the window, just a little, to let the cable out, is no good idea??:rolleyes:

That would be crazy! Bring a drill. :D