Fun to play with, its free.
PocketFMS is a cool FREE program. What else do you want for free. It's not as slick or refined as a commercial product, but again I bring you attention to the word "
FREE".
The guys are in UK and are constantly messing with it, mostly for the better. If you have a PDA and PDA GPS already than why not try it. You can actually just load it on your PC and play with it.
It's worth every penny (free), fun to play with. It takes time to learn how to down loaded to the home computer, up load to a Pocket PC and load data. You need a GPS receiver as well. Its "experimental" and has nice features, but its no Garmin X96. Also the speed at which it runs in a small PDA varies, depending on the processor and memory. An old PDA works OK. My PDA is iPaq 3850, not new but acceptable. It stains a little to run PocketFMS, even with extra memory (256mb). A commercial auto-map GPS program runs well on my iPaq 3850, so it's probably the efficiency of the software?
The biggest error I found in PFMS data was the MSA (min safe altitude). Actually MSA is MSA on a sectional is (MEF) max elevation figure - highers elevation or obstacle rounded up to nearest 100 to 300 ft in quadrangle of lat long. 101 ft clearance is not really safe!
The MEFs where not correct in my area, too low. Overall it's correct, airports, nav aids and so on are there. MSA, obstacles and so on are also in there, but I would not trust it. The funny thing is the towers/obstacles/terrain look correct, but the MSA/MEF was wrong (lower than charted obstacles). I wrote them about the error. They replied promptly and promised to fix it. They changed it at the very next soon released update; it was still wrong, this time too high. Actually they added 1000 feet to the MEF/MSA. Nothing wrong with that but it reads 1000 ft more than a VFR sectional. It keeps you safe at night or flying into the sun where a tower might jump up and grab you. Some towers in my local area are over 2200 ft msl! They're in the UK? (Europe, "The Continent", somewhere) and rely on users to report bugs, which is cool. Its OPEN software, a work in progress users contribute to. They release updates (or where a year or two ago) constantly.
I concur its a little work manipulating the data and requires you to load different regions ARTCC-(AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER.). The good part is it has most of the world, including the North Atlantic. If you plan on a over water trip to Europe, you will have Gander, Rajkovic Iceland.
The bad part is you probably don't have enough memory to hold the whole USA much less the world. Actually you'll be lucky to hold say the East Coast - Maine to Miami in your pocket device.
Equip: The bad news is your pocket PDA will likely need more memory, so plan on an extra memory card to hold it. The good news memory is cheap now. I have a 256mb SD card in a Compaq iPaq 3850. It is too small for PocketFMS data. Now a 1 gb SD card cost 1/2 of what I paid for my 256mb years ago. So grab a 1 gb card or even a 2 gb card. Looks like the 1 gb retail go for about $50 ($25 ebay)? I saw 2GB SD cards on ebay sell for $22, they list for $109.
The other equip I use is an external battery sleeve the iPaq slides into. The sleeve gives extra battery power but also an extra expansion slot for a PCMCIA card (the bigger card that slides into laptops). My GPS card is a CF (compact flash). It works in a PCMCIA slot with an adaptor. Confusing but make sure you have the right slot for the "GPS card" you intend on using. They make smaller SD sized card GPS units now. SD is smaller than CF. New Pocket PC or PDA's now have at least two slots, SD and CF. Plus they have bigger screens with more processor power. A HP iPAQ Pocket PC Hx4705 is pretty cool, about $600-$700. By the time you get a GPS you are over the cost of some nice aviation GPS units. Of course a IPAQ can act as a little computer and run software like MS office or even tap into the internet. The down side? The small screen, too small for internet use. You can get cheaper new iPaqs (smaller screens) for about $200-$500. They will work fine in this GPS role.
Just be aware not all GPS cards for computer/PDA use work with pocketFMS. They have a list of some PDA/GPS combos on their site reported to work successfully and some that don't. No PDA will last long on battery only w/ continuous gps use, so external power is a must.
My PocketFMS "experimentation" worked pretty so-so for me. Kind of jumpy. I never flew w/ it but drove around in the car. I suspect a new PDA will handle the program better (may be?). New top of line PDA's are faster. You can turn off detail and get faster response but still it was never super smooth for me.
I played with it, had fun, but I don't think I'll seriously be using it in a plane, at least for now. I like my old Garmin is just fine. Besides you can buy a Lowrance a new dedicated color aviation GPS with terrain alert for $500 w/ a PDA sized screen. For $1000 you can get a large color screen GPS. A used Garmin 296 or 396 is what? ($900 to $1800 respectively) A B&W Garmin is even cheaper.
I have a second GPS receiver which plugs into my PDA's serial port (verses a CF card). That GPS came with car map software (Destinator - which is a good brand automotive map software). The serial GPS receiver works fine with the car map program. Very smooth, super accurate with the lady nagging me turn in X miles.
I could not get this GPS to work with PocketFMS. It may be the string it sends or speed, not sure. I messed with it, played with settings but gave up. I had hoped this GPS would give better performance than a CF card GPS. Others have used the iPaq I have (model 3850) and PocketFMS satisfactorily? May be its just me.
I have pretty much given up messing with my iPaq as an aviation GPS. Don't get me wrong it was fun. I learned a lot, but its just not practical for me. I actually use my PDA for PDA'ing, contacts, MS Word files, Excel Spread sheet, Adobe files and pictures of the family. It runs MS Pocket Windows 2002, so it earns it's keep just for that.
If you have a PDA and PDA GPS than go for it. It's fun to play with.
I like dedicated GPS units better. I'll break out my pocket PC and load the automotive GPS into the car for a trip sometimes, but with all the wires, antenna, power cable and finding a place to mount it, its too much hassle for everyday use. I have decided my next car will have a GPS standard or I'll just buy a dedicated GPS just for car duties. Dedicated GPS units are superior in so many ways. The aviation Garmin's can do double duty, auto and plane, but again the moving it from car to plane to car to plane is a pain. I'd rather leave it installed and semi permanently mount separate units, even if I have to buy two units. Besides I don't need a car GPS to drive around the neighborhood.
It'd be nice to have one unit that has it all: Cell phone, camera, video recorder/player, MP3 music player, GPS auto-car-hiking, ELT, aviation transceiver and Pocket PC with wireless internet connection, all in one, with no external power or antenna wires, which runs for weeks, 24/7 on battery only. May be someday and it will be the size of a watch and the implant in your brain allows interaction by just thinking about it.
PDA units doing duties like GPS work but are cumbersome. Some combo's work like a "Clock-Radio", but not every combo unit is a good idea.
