However, that sort of performance is quite inconsistent, especially in shallower water.
Garmin homeport 2.2 Patch#
In this case it’s a particularly dense patch of lobster trap buoys and lines, but I’ve also seen the underwater parts of other vessels and aquaculture pens this way. Note, too, how the EchoPilot FLS is targeting something right near the surface about 30 feet away. While the charted area covers some of the incredibly beautiful granite and spruce islands off Stonington, Maine, note the ridiculous number of rocks awash sometime between high and low tide it’s even more of a gunkholing delight if can see underwater ahead of your boat, even just vaguely. Actually, I was purposely headed at a ledge that’s always above water and guarded by a sound buoy, but then again, it has no doubt earned its name “The Graves” several times over.
That could be a poorly charted reef somewhere - or a well-charted obstacle that a navigator had failed to account for. In fact, this screen nicely illustrates what a bacon-saving technology FLS can be. Only FLS can show you, as on the screen above, that a shallowing trend will continue and that there may be something of truly serious concern about 300 feet ahead. On the other hand, side imaging at best can only suggest a danger that might be directly ahead. FLS can’t work that way adding the beam images - a 90 degree bottom to water surface sweep about 10 degrees wide - one to another would just create a big smudge. But they’re using long, narrow beam transducer elements that fit better fore and aft and more important, they build their screen images one fine line at a time. The limitations may be even harder to grasp, now that we have quite detailed yet affordable side imaging coming from the likes of Humminbird, Simrad, Lowrance, Garmin, and (sort of, so far) Raymarine. Still, as the title says, I am finding that the EchoPilot’s performance and usefulness is better than I expected, but then again - a big “but” - my expectations were quite low…įorward looking sonar is hard! As discussed in my April entry about EchoPilot FLS (and the Simrad ForwardScan coming some day), my experience with a lesser model EchoPilot and a lot of research taught me not to expect much range or even a consistent ability to image substantial hard targets. Note, too, that the more conventional and less expensive Raymarine CHIRP DownView/sonar is at least suggesting a shallowing trend.
Garmin homeport 2.2 full#
If you click the photo above to full size, for instance, note how the FLS in the Garmin video window is showing especially shallow water about 55 feet ahead, though in a rather vague, pixilated manner. She: “HEY! Do you realize you’re steering right at a ledge?!?” He: “Yes, dear.” While it was a tough cruise for my lovely first mate, I did learn a lot about what an EchoPilot FLS Platinum Video Engine can actually do. Written by Ben Ellison on for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub
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