"GPSMAP 295 aids aerial photographer"  

I don't have a story quite yet. But I just bought the GARMIN GPSMAP 295, and I think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I bought the 295 to help me navigate during some aerial photo flights I'll be doing this summer down in southern Ohio. I'm currently working on my second book about the Hopewell earthworks which were built about 2,000 years ago by native Americans. Some of these earthworks are geometrically shaped and are best viewed from the air because they are so huge. Some are several hundreds of acres in extent. Anyway, the 295 will be of tremendous use to me in locating these sites from the air and getting home safely. I especially like the lighted buttons and how the unit automatically switches to night mode. You guys thought of everything. What an absolutely wonderful piece of equipment. I hope you folks sell a million of 'em.

W.R.

"Fishfinder 240 and eTrex find the best fishing spots" 

I have been fishing on my home lake more than 15 years now, and I guess I don't know it as well as I thought. I heard of the rebate offer for the Fishfinder 240, so I got one, took it out on the boat, just playing around a little bit, and I came across what looked to be an old underwater bridge. I said "what the heck," so I started to fish it. It was the very best day I ever had on the lake (lots of fish). The next day I wanted to repeat it. I spent over 10 hours and two tanks of fuel looking for that spot. I never did find it again. After seeing the new eTrex, I got one. I was able to find the spot once again. Now anytime I want, I just go right to that spot. Thanks for making me a better fisherman.

Ted in Texas

"eTrex takes on bike trails in Costa Rica" 

I am the webmaster of a mountain biking group in Costa Rica, Central America. Our group's name is Ecociclistas. We have been documenting our trails on our Web site for about a year. I recently acquired a GARMIN eTrex to document the waypoints on our rides. I purchased the eTrex because of its size and price/performance. Since the purchase of the eTrex, we have documented our rides with ride descriptions (in Spanish), waypoints, altitude and pictures and scanned 1:50,000 maps of the area. I have copied the waypoint info. manually onto the Web pages. People with no prior knowledge of the area have successfully done the route despite its many intersections and a ride sequence that is difficult to explain with words. A list of all the routes is at: http://www.axioma.co.cr/mtb/rutasmtb.htm

R.A.

"Thanks for adding military grid to GPS III Plus"  

Thank you, thank you. I want to believe that my voice alone was finally heard, but I really believe it must have been a great many people asking for MGRS to be added to grid types with the GPS III Plus. You people are great and I really love my III Plus. I can use my unit at work easier now with the addition of MGRS. I use my III Plus for a great variety of things and am always pleased with its simplicity, accuracy, and power conservative nature. Thanks once more.

R.K.

"eMap guided them out of gridlock"  

My grandparents have used GARMIN products for deep sea fishing, and they first introduced GPS to me years ago. I have wanted the GARMIN GPS II or III, but with newborn twins, it hasn't been on the top of my wife's approval list. My wife saw the TV commercial with the dad walking around reading how fast he was walking, his elevation, distance from other points, etc., and I guess she understood this "guy thing" as she says.

Last week, we took a Christmas roadtrip from Atlanta, GA, to Orlando, FL, to see my parents (perfect Christmas). Our kids are 1-year-old twins and a 3-year-old. We returned via I75, Sunday afternoon, 12/26/99, along with a few million others. My wife and I were not paying attention to exits and zipped past an exit, driving right into gridlock somewhere south of Gainesville. If you've spent any amount of time in the car with small kids, you know the type of scenario we were faced with: A 7-8 hour trip extended to 10-11 hours in a minivan with Barney videos and music. Kids can be distracting, Barney can be numbing; we weren't sure how far we'd travelled or which exit was where, so our paper map was useless. Looked like we were joining the others in the sit and wait.

Our GARMIN eMap (a Christmas present) pinpointed our location, showing the last exit and alternate route detail. We backtracked to the exit, took alternates and saved a lot of time (hours) sitting in traffic with screaming kids. My wife was happy and said the investment 'had paid off' right then and there. The rest of the trip she was acquainting herself with the new GPS. She quickly found which restaurants were at which exit, and how far to the next rest area and gas station. She was measuring the distance between the points and the eMap was calculating ETAs for our different stops. It actually took a lot of the stress out of driving long distances and trying to figure out all of the logistics. I've even found alternate routes to work, which will save much commuting time over the year. eMap is a great tool with a lot of great features. While the eMap came with a preloaded basemap, I highly recommend getting at least the MapSource Roads & Rec CD for great detail. It's an excellent product—I have recommended it to all my friends. To the people of GARMIN, you do good work.

R.W.

"GPS 12 helps locate and mark villages in Peru"  

I am a dental student at the University of Connecticu, and I just got back from a dental trip to Peru, where I used my GARMIN GPS 12. We were going to villages along the Amazon River to extract decayed teeth. The government in Peru does not know the exact positions of many of these villages. The local organization APECA (Association for the preservation, education, and conservation of the Amazon) wanted to record the exact positions of each of the villages so that other medical or government people could find their way there in the future. The day that we arrived, I was shown a satellite map with UTM coordinates of the region we were going to be in, and I knew roughly how to get to the villages. When we arrived in the villages, I would take an average position at the dock on the Amazon. These positions will be submitted to the government to be officially recorded on a map so that more people can get to these villages. For some of the villages, we would have to ask the local people in the dugout canoes on the river how to get to them. Going home each evening was great because the GPS 12 would give us our exact time of arrival. We were able to calculate that the river was moving at about four miles per hour. The head of APECA was given a GARMIN marine GPS, and since the instruction book was in English, I switched the GPS to Spanish mode and, through a translator, showed him how to use it so that he will be able to record the exact positions of any future villages he goes to. I was so excited to actually use my GPS for something other than hiking in the USA.

K.M

"And StreetPilot makes #4"  

This is my fourth GARMIN product (the StreetPilot GPS). After seeing some of the other GPS units my relatives have purchased and hearing their comments, I think GARMIN is in a class all its own with others following the lead like a dog sled team. I have had so many good experiences with your products, it would take volumes to document.

I am a Network Field Engineer for a health company and do a lot of traveling around, and when we have to cover another engineer's territory, the StreetPilot is great—you have peace of mind knowing that you can get home with no problems. Seeing the street-level detail is a major plus.

T.B.

"Emergency landing a success thanks to GPS III Pilot" 

I am one of your newest customers. I just ordered a GARMIN GPS III Pilot for my plane. Only after seeing the unit in action last Saturday and literally seeing how it was instrumental in saving my life did I order the unit. I had been "waiting" for the prices to hopefully drop on the III Pilot before I got one. Now I see that its price is actually very reasonable. After all, how much is a life worth?

My instructor, Johnny S., a stunt pilot/medical student in Mississippi, and I were flying to an airshow last Saturday. The airshow was to be held in Dexter, Missouri. We were flying from Jackson, Mississippi, to Missouri in Johnny's Hiperbipe stunt plane. Johnny was to perform the following day at the airshow.

While en route to the airshow, we were cruising at about 5,500 feet MSL. Johnny was flying in the right seat and I was in the left seat. All of a sudden, Johnny reached up and punched one of the buttons on his III Pilot. He immediately commented that we were going to have to make an emergency landing. I was totally in the dark about any problems with the plane. The engine seemed to be running fine. There were no weird sounds and the ride was as smooth as silk.

Upon questioning him further, he quickly commented that he was getting oil on the windshield from the prop area. He indicated that things were going to get worse before they got better and we had to get down and get down quickly. He commented that the nearest airport was the Lexington, Mississippi, airport which was about 5 1/2 minutes away. He, of course, was reading this information right off of the III Pilot screen and pointed it out to me.

Within seconds, the situation had gotten much worse just as he had said it would. The oil from the prop area seemed to be flowing freely and the windshield quickly was covered to the point where it looked like rippling caramel coating it. Johnny's window and side view was not far behind in being completely covered. It was as though someone had thrown a blanket over the windshield. There was zero visibility from the PIC's right-seat position.

My side of the plane was quickly getting coated with oil as well. Johnny tried opening his door to view what was ahead but the hot oil from the engine plastered him. He quickly closed the door. He called 121.5 and transmitted a Mayday.

There was no way for Johnny to pick an emergency landing area with his view totally blocked. I too had limited visibility and could see no good landing spots. He told me that he had the III Pilot locked on the Lexington airport and we were going to head toward the airport.

With only a small area to look through the window on my side and no area on Johnny's side of the plane, Johnny asked me to tell him when I saw the airport and to tell him when we crossed mid-field. He was doing his best to keep the plane flying.

Eventually, I spotted the airport among a grove of trees. There would have been no way to see this airport when we initially began to experience problems with the plane. Thank goodness, Johnny knew how to find the nearest airport using the GPS and had enough experience to know that the GPS would point us to the airport. He relied totally on the III Pilot and it came through big time.

As we approached mid-field, I let Johnny know we were crossing. He instinctively flew the pattern with no visibility on his side and me giving directions as to where the runway was located.

Believe it or not, he flew the plane on final approach and maneuvered based on my telling him to "go left, go right, go left, left some more, go right," etc.

The landing consisted of one bounce and a huge flare with a soft touch down. We rolled to a stop in disbelief. In a moment of silence, I am not sure what Johnny was thinking, but I was thanking the Lord for letting us survive this ordeal. And thanking Him for the III Pilot mounted on the dash. Without it, there is no way we would have ever found the airport. Also, did I mention that the area we flew over was covered with trees? No other emergency landing site could be seen.

My III Pilot is supposed to be on my doorstep come Thursday. I can't wait to set it up and start learning all about it. I am attaching a digital photo of Johnny's plane which I took after the ordeal. The oil has settle down somewhat in the photo but I believe the photo will speak for itself.

Thank you guys for such a great product—a true lifesaver.

R.W.