What would a navigation web site be without a discussion on GPS.

First of all I want to say just how wonderful a navigator a GPS reciever is.  Of course if I had had a GPS in my day of flying I wouldn't have had an actual navigator on board, and therefore not appreciate the GPS now.  The GPS receiver is fast and relatively accurate.  It can let me know where I am, and where things are in relation to me.

Next I want to point out that GPS recievers are not as accurate as people seem to think.  They are not accurate to within 3 feet, the correct term is 3 meters, which is 9 feet at best.

Another Item that needs to be cleared up is the compass on a GPS receiver.  Unless it is based on something else besides a magnetic signal when below a certain speed, then it is very inaccurate.  Even less accurate than a regular magnetic compass.

Why do I say that?  Because a magnetic compass that isn't calibrated is very inaccurate.  With the bouncing needle and the magnetic attractors around it there is much more error than just earths magnetic declination.

Plus with the GPS recievers inherent errors and wander, to take a bearing with a GPS receiver standing still is ludicrous.  The magnetic deviations and the constant wander of the GPS makes the bearing constantly changing.

So my suggestion is that you use the strong point of the GPS.  It knows where you are, (When the error is large relative to the distanceto the object, then there are large variations in the GPS bearings) , and it knows where the object or point is.  So read the bearing and distance that it shows you and take your bearing from a regular compass and follow that sighting.

When you are close like within 50 feet, don't follow every change of the bearing and distance, just the ones that are in the relative direction of the bearings you read when farther away.  If the GPS bearings are consitently in a whole other direction then you may have passed it.

You can always tell when someone is following the needle of the GPS compass, because they wander around like an ant wandering around.

Now don't confuse the GPS compass bearings while stopped to the accuracy of the GPS bearings while moving.

While moving the GPS compass bearings are very accurate.  Because they take the change of position and calculate the bearing between the position before and the position now.