GPS for ballooning?

[Fschwep]

OK, here’s the question. It’s more that I hope to get confirmation of my choice.

I am not new to GPS, having used Garmin 45 and 12XL models since way before selective availability was abolished under Bill Clinton...
I use my GPS first and foremost for hot-air ballooning, including competition flying. This means precision navigation to goals and targets (using just changes in wind direction with altitude to steer), the locations of which are always expressed as UTM grid coordinates, to be found on topographical maps. Long before anyone used a GPS, us competitive balloon pilots plotted our targets using transparent little grids or rulers and military-style topo maps, as these have always had UTM grids.
My on-board Garmin 12XL serves mostly to tell me the heading and speed I have, which is useful to find a layer of air where I can gain those few degrees more to left or right towards a target; if I have time before taking off on a competition flight I will enter the goals as waypoints, but I still use a large map board with a real paper map (rather, a set of maps carefully glued and taped together to cover the entire competition zone, with dangerous obstacles like major powerlines and airspace restrictions drawn in with highlight markers). The obvious reason for using a paper map is to be able to anticipate by viewing a large area while still retaining detail, which is what a GPS will never offer. A paper map also works without batteries...
After the flight I log my flight track in a mapping program (here in France that means ‘CartExploreur’ from the topo institute, which btw is also the institute who provide vector topo maps for Garmin - but the software on a pc will work with essentially any GPS for downloading tracks etc.).

To determine our scores relative to a set goal, we drop ‘markers’: small sandbags sewn into long streamers of lightweight nylon. After the flight we return to retrieve them, accompanied by a competition official, a so-called ‘observer’, who has to measure the exact scoring position on the map and thus the distance to the goal. Which may be miles away if the wind has shifted during the flight (if you manage to drop the marker on the target, there usually is a measuring crew with all the equipment to measure the score with millimetre precision, but once you are far away, it’s the UTM grid coordinate of the mark that determines the score). Sort of geocaching by throwing the cache out of a balloon...

In recent years the rules have been expanded to include the use of GPS loggers: these allow the organizers to ensure pilots stick to the rules for maximum altitude and avoidance of prohibited zones (with say sensitive animals, or controlled airspace). And there are now 3D-tasks where a goal can be projected virtually in the air at a certain altitude above the ground.
The loggers are usually just Garmin Etrex Summits sealed into plastic tupperware boxes and attached to the balloons by the organizers. The official observers take them back to the competition centre where the tracks are uploaded into the scoring computer. For some tasks, there will be no marker but just the track (say for an angle task, and other tasks where you must fly geometrical figures within certain areas on the map - which is hard work if you have no rudder and no propulsion!).

The pilots are strongly advised to carry their own GPS with similar capabilities in the basket as a backup - in practice they carry an outdoor/handheld GPS with altitude capability, or a dedicated portable aviation model. My 12XL no longer cuts it for competitions, although it is perfectly OK for pleasure and passenger flying.

So what I want is
a) pressure altitude measuring and logging;
b) very good reception, also in deep ravines and under tree cover, and holding well indoors near a window while entering waypoints without repeated warnings of lost satellite reception;
c) lots of storage capability for tracks, waypoints and maps so I can store the tracks of several days of flying without having to upload to a laptop and then delete the track after every flight; d) mapping capability with the option to load good quality topo maps;
e) basic car routing, so the GPS will guide us in the retrieve car along the roads back to a marker when I have set the drop point as a waypoint. This is important as there is usually a time limit for finding the markers – taking a few wrong turns on small country roads may result in a ‘lost marker’ and thus losing lots of points.

My guess, after reading up on recent models, is that a Garmin 60CSx or 76CSx would offer the best functionality for the use described. With a slight preference for the 60CSx which has a flatter backside and a belt clip (so I can suspend it from a tight strap in the basket, or clip it to my belt or a breast pocket while looking for the marker in a field or forest, geocaching style).
However, for practical reasons (no dealers in my rural area) I have not been able to handle one in the metal myself yet.

Is my intuition correct?

[Tim]

Sorry to provide such a short answer to such a thorough question... but Yes! The 60CSx is likely the best match for what you are looking for. I only have one other suggestion for something you might consider, having ties to the ballooning community myself.

The Rhino series (like the 530) offers similar functions as the 60CSx with the addition of short range two way radios. If you purchased two, you could have one in the balloon and another in your chase vehicle. The chase vehicle can see the position of your GPS from their GPS, and it would allow "walkie talkie" like communication when desired.

[Fschwep]