Hampshire: Village Hall, Martyr Worthy, GR SU 517.327
Hertfordshire: YHA Lee Valley, Windmill Lane, Cheshunt GR TL3680/0240
North Lakes: The Village Hall, Mungrisdale (just off the A66, approx. 8 miles east of Keswick) GR 362/ 302
Sherwood Forest: Visitor Centre, Edwinstowe
South Cotswolds: Village Hall, Didmarton
South Lakes: YHA Ambleside at Waterhead on A591 GR NY3770/0305
Yorkshire Dales: Dalesbridge Centre, (just off the A65) Austwick, North Yorkshire GR SD 762/676
Course Fee:
£59 including handouts, tea, coffee & biscuits and use of all equipment. Bring your own sandwiches or lunch is available locally at a reasonable price.
Book this course with any other course(s) and get a 10% discount on all courses booked in the same name. Consecutive dates available
Booking:
Check availability by using the button at the top of this page and book directly via our secure booking system. Please book early as the course is run with small groups and places are strictly limited.
You should bring:
Boots and outdoor gear and your booking confirmation. A GPS is not needed but bring your own if you have one. If you do bring your own GPS, please bring a cable to link it to a PC if you have one. Whilst we have cables for most modern GPS, we cannot guarantee to have the one you need. If in doubt, please contact us.
What's the course about? The course will be a day of practical route planning & creation, downloading and uploading routes and tracks between GPS and three-dimensional digital map systems with the opportunity to design and walk some routes and practise the skills that have been learnt. Advanced safety techniques will be considered and you'll also learn how to use your GPS abroad with different map systems and download waypoints from the Internet. The latest developments in Geocaching & GeoTrailing™ will also be explained.
Is this course right for you? You will have taught yourself the basics of GPS or will have attended our 'Getting Started' course. You may not yet have worked with digital maps. All the jargon and technical features will be explained as we go along and you'll get handouts to refer to when you get home.
Our courses will cover both Magellan® and Garmin® GPS systems. If you do not already own a GPS, we will have a choice of GPS for you to use on the day. Although most of the learning points of the course are simply transferable to other products and brands, please note that there is usually not enough time to address specific product-related questions that are outside the scope of the course.
This is not a basic navigation training course. If you join this course it is assumed that you can use a map and compass for basic navigation. We do run a series of Traditional Navigation Days sponsored by SilvaTM that will provide you with a excellent set of basic map and compass skills.
What's the course designed to achieve? The aim of the course is that you should be able to confidently and safely use the full potential of a combined GPS and digital map system whether at home or abroad.
What will I learn? By the end of the day you should be able to:
plan, create and save routes using a digital map to fit in with distance, time/ ability constraints- Naismith's rule
build in escape routes/ waypoints in case of bad weather or emergency
download planned routes from a digital map to a GPS
navigate created routes using all relevant features of the GPS to assist you including elevation, time to destination, distance to destination and the trip computer page
upload tracklog from navigated route to a digital map from a GPS
review performance by comparing actual track against route plan or personal benchmarks
use the TracBack feature to retrace your steps
set up a GPS to work correctly abroad
how to download waypoints from the Internet
get involved in the new leisure sports of Geocaching and Geotrailing and know where to find out more
appreciate the potential of the latest developments in GPS & digital maps.
What's in the course?
Principles of GPS route planning; consideration of elements of Naismith's rule as a feature of Memory-MapTM software
Consideration of creation of escape route/ waypoints as safety backup
Converting tracks to routes
Downloading and uploading data between digital map and GPS
The 'Compass'/'Navigate' page - setting it up and using the features
The 'Map' screen - setting it up and using the features
Navigation of planned route using relevant GPS information to assist you
Reviewing track performance; saving and deleting routes and tracklog
TracBack features
Navigation of route using TracBack features
International position formats, map datums and sources of worldwide information
GPS and Geocaching & Geotrailing
The latest developments of GPS for the outdoors - how useful are they
plan, create and save routes using a digital map to fit in with distance, time/ ability