GPS Orientation

Which GPS map orientation do you primarily use?

  • North Up

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Heading Up

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
I always orient North up on land and at sea, couldnt change now even if I wanted to.
 
GPS orientation for me always North just like paper charts.
 
I've done both. I thought I liked "heading up" on the gps because it's easier to find the darn boat when I drive it off the chart, and because when I'm zoomed way in and need to scoot the chart quickly to see what's ahead it's easier to scoot "up" without having to think about it. I'm currently driving "north up" because I find the way the screen jumps around on "heading up" to be distracting, because I use paper charts and topos that way, and because, as my young daughter said "Isn't it harder on the engine to always be driving up?"
 
Neat stuff here...as well are some of the answers too.

North up for me, and yes, I do know how to change it from the factory setting before some of you ask....

I like being able to communicate with comercial trafic on the VHF as to where they want me to go in the tight rivers. It also helps me to follow real charts/maps... and there is simply not enough room to spin the maps on the dash....and it is real hard when you have the map taped to the roof so ya can't spill ya beverage of choice on the map and ya just have to look up for a "scan out peek."

Ya know something that always amazed me being raised in the hardware business..... when helping a customer with a screen door or other door question about it being henged left or right side.... no matter which direction they were facing in the store..... they would just about 75% of the time, turn about and act like they were opening that door....turn back around and give me the answer. They more than likely enjoyed the heading up...and twist maps in circles too.

Got a lots of kicks when attempting to meet up with some other chart folks on the lake when asking them to give me a directions/distance answer to a solid known good hard target....and their 1st response was.... " I aint sure, let me set my beer down and switch the map...."

I guess as long as we get there...and we gather. Life is good on a C-Dory.
 
Heading up! I want to look out the window and match what I'm seeing with what is in front of the boat on the plotter. I don't care what direction north is...I want to know what's in front of me. Just easier for me.
 
Hmmm... I read charts/maps with North Up. 'taint no other way they make sense. But I use the GPS in Heading up as I want to follow the contour lines while fishing and it is simply easier to correlate the view outside to the GPS when zoomed way in. Plotting courses however will mean setting it to North Up again.
 
find north and then orientate the map to the direction of travel. land nav. 101 in the service.I always use heading or course up.
 
GPS Chart Plotters are North up. Great for true and relative references from the paper/book charts that most people have on board. My primary plotter is my GARMIN 2006c with the fish finder.

The RADAR is heads up and marvelous aide for collision avoidance with Nav Aides, bridges and the many uneducated 'weekend' boaters. Best of both worlds. Here the RAYMARINE C80 RADAR with its chart plotter is the backup and a wonderful cross check.

If you have the C80 Chart Plotter with an Auto Pilot, I have encountered a heading error on this plotter due to a Flux Gate error which was not immediately apparent when I left the dock due to heavy traffic around the piers. The Standby compass & Garmin brought this to my attention and I had to 'swing' the compass before I ventured across the Ches. Bay with Auto Pilot, etc.. Now I cross check my instruments more faithfully than before, just as when I was flying crew in the ASW aircraft with the USN.

Art, get rid of the details....

>>>>>GPS..... North UP. RADAR.... Heads UP.<<<<<<
 
Sea Angel":25mg104r said:
If you have the C80 Chart Plotter with an Auto Pilot, I have encountered a heading error on this plotter due to a Flux Gate error which was not immediately apparent when I left the dock due to heavy traffic around the piers. The Standby compass & Garmin brought this to my attention and I had to 'swing' the compass before I ventured across the Ches. Bay with Auto Pilot, etc.. .<<<<<<
Click to expand...


You got off easy. When I accidently left my flux gate open, I lost warp drive altogether in heavy traffic, and ended up going frontwards and backwards at the same time. Depending on the compressed state of your tides and currents archive, that can be very disturbing! I had to solder in a new flux capacitor to fix it. :smileo :P
 
no -- wait -- that wasn't me. :smilep
 
Same as Mike on "Levity", north up except if I don't know the area or have had too many beers!

McNaughty III
 
Grin.... yep.... night, fog, beer, trolling..... loved that color overlay of radar over detailed chart on my Raymarine. Purple Bad.
 
When planning, plotting routes, etc. I always look at charts in North Up mode. However, years ago working on fishing boats we did a lot of radar assisted navigation. I learned to orient the chart heading up so that the picture on the radar screen and the chart could be more quickly compared. I guess it stuck because now I like running with the GPS chart in heading up. And the same still applies regarding comparison between the electronic chart and the image on the radar screen.
 
Hi everyone,

We have one of the new Garmen plotters with the built in coastal maps. I can work everything EXCEPT changing to course up. Most of the time I like North up , but some times like at night the course up would be handy.

Maybe some one could instruct me.

THANKS
 
What model Garmin? I just installed the 3210 and changed it to display course up. It has soft keys, and one is for Map Setup. I believe it is through that menu where the orientation is set. If it is some model other than the 3200 series, I probably can't help you much.

Now we might have to redo this poll, because Garmin threw another option into the mix. With the new BlueChart g2 cards there is an option to display what they call "mariners-eye-view" which is a 3D mode that is supposed to look like what you see out the window with the sky on top and the water on the bottom. I haven't tried it because my cards aren't here yet, but the reviews I have seen don't give it much value. I guess when in that mode not many of the plotting features work. The new g2 cards also have some other new features one of which is the inclusion of aerial photos of inlets and marinas. Could be cool.
 
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