Difference between coordinates, GPS vs mapping sites

I fly over and interesting feature (looks like a runway) on a regular trip. I have written down the coordinates off the GPS when I am over it and try looking at it on google maps but those GPS coordinates take me some distance NE of the landmark when I finally find it. That tells me that, if I were to get the coordinates off the google map and try to navigate there by the GPS, I would miss the mark.

There is something in the Garmin set-up about datum but I would hope that a set of coordinates would be the same for a given location.

Comments

  • WGS84 is the standard datum for navigation.

    FYI my 496/530/Google Earth all line up exactly on the A/FD coordinates for my home field.

    How big is your error? It's actually really tough to mark on top (directly on top) of a particular point in flight.
  • I agree with 78TArrow that you may just be mis-marking your coordinates as you fly over.

    If you think it's more than that, then I would check to make sure you're not confusing decimal coordinates for deg-min-sec, or vice-versa.

    It might help if you posted the actual coordinates in question. (If you've recorded multiple sets of coordinates, please post all of them.)
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