Need for a simpler GPS

I've got a Garmin 12XL that's pretty close to what you're talking about.  It lets me enter a single waypoint or a series as a route, and has a big arrow pointing to the next waypoint.  No moving map (though it does record your location so you can plot it later).  It cost ~$150 when my wife bought it for me ~8 years ago.  It's of the "Brick" type form factor, but the local boat shop sold a mount that went into my Fly Baby just fine.

They don't make the 12XL anymore, but you might look into the Garmin 72H, which looks like the successor.  The Garmin Etrex is only a hundred bucks, but it has all the buttons along the side.  Neat thing is, these all have USB ports so you can manage waypoints, etc. at home.

Thanks, Ron, I'll take a closer look at the basic marine GPS options.  I notice that the model you suggest does not display altitude in any of the navigation screens, which is of course logical on the water, but would be nice to have in the air as a back-up to the altimeter.

Any other nominees for basic aviation GPS?

I use a Garmin GPS V, but it's a bit old too. I use navaid.com to generate a aviation waypoint GPX file that MapSource can send to the GPS.

For more modern GPS units, perhaps look at the hiking units ( such as the eTrex from Garmin) as well. Some of them (Oregon line) have compasses and barometers built into them.

Garmin is still selling the GPS 96, 96C, and 196, which are nice aviation units (on their web site 4 Jul 10).

I know Garmin better than other units; perhaps TomTom or Magellen make comparable systems. Some of the auto units can be configured for "off road", point-to-point navigation.

Need a cheap, simple GPS? Try this - get an older Magellan, Garmin or Lowrence handheld unit and load it up with an aviation database from aeroplanner.com .

I had an old unsupported Magellan Skymap aviation unit. It cost me less than $5 to load it with a current set of FAA navigation databases for airport, navaid, and fix information. You choose a central airport and select an increment from 10 miles to 300 miles radius. Download the DB to your computer and then to the GPS. It took me less than 15 minutes and I had a backup to my panel mounted King unit. It wont give me frequencies or airspace info but will give me a "direct to" whatever fix I choose. Kinda like an ADF. I did have to make a data cable (RS232 - mini plug) for my unit since I lost the original. The diagram & parts were easy to find.

On the website, go to the "For the GPS" link at the bottom of the page. The instructions are pretty clear.

 I dont work for them, but this worked for me

Thanks for the tip, Eric, but unfortunately that won't work for me as I do most of my flying in France and aeroplanner.com is only for U.S. airspace.  I need something a little more flexible.  I am still amazed that none of the manufacturers are offering a cheap little aviation GPS unit, either portable or in a standard instrument hole panel mount, perhaps with a little data card or just a USB plug for uploading/downloading data.  There really ought to be an aviation-specific option for less that the $400 Garmin wants for their most basic model.

I thought the realtime GPS position map from Google maps would be as useful in the plane as it is on the ground on my Blackberry 8900 cell phone but the Internet G3 service dies out above 1500'.  The cell tower antennas must be focused line of sight towards the ground.  It would have been a neat freebie if it had worked.

Not quite $400 but $500.  The iFly 700.  Fantastic in my opinion.  Google it up.  But not yet for the EU unless some separate software could be loaded on it; don't know.