Navigation course in the spirit of Corona – BMW GS Club International e.V.

Navigational course in the sign of Corona

What should you do with all the free evenings at home? The best films have already been watched, some of them several times, many old friends called again and you have had enough of losing in the "Mensch-ärger-dich-nicht" game. So the idea of a navigation course came up just right.
Ah, an online course. Oh, I've never done it before. Oh, all you need is a PC with a loudspeaker, microphone and camera and of course the Internet. Doesn't my laptop have it all?
In the first online meeting, therefore, not all of them could be seen, some of them not even heard, and some of them briefly offline, but the quality of the participant technology and navigation knowledge increased dramatically over the course of the six meetings.
The statement of one participant fits in with this: “Now I can really plan routes in the base camp, even with time planning and arrival time breaks, which really helps with time calculation. Especially on longer journeys. Save routes in lists and folders, properly structured. Basecamp can be fun – before it was just tiring.”
Most of that is already said about what the course was about. After a short theory of how the navigation works - GPS, satellites, route tracks, waypoints, etc. - we got down to business and how the navigation system works. Many GS drivers either have a BMW Navigator, Garmin or TomTom on their bike do not know all the functions of the device. And they can really do a lot compared to an app on a smartphone, you just have to know what and where ...

Next on the agenda was Basecamp, probably the most hated program for navigating. It's true that as a newcomer you crouch in front of it like the proverbial ox in front of the mountain. How good that Harald (the ox driver J) has found a great way over the mountain thanks to a good structure and sequence.
Questions like: why is he now driving on the highway, why does he want to take this detour, why can't I get where I want to go, why can't he find a way there at all, and many others were able to answer, explain and fill in the evening in 6 sessions to be discussed. The possible differences between the representation of a route in the base camp and on the navigation system were discussed in detail and explained how you can reduce or avoid them.

Another part of the course was the use of MyRoute (MRA), both the internet application and the smartphone app. Here, the participants learned more exciting details, such as how to get a route that is planned to be as curvy as possible on TomTom Karter material on a BMW navigation system. Or how to view the streets recommended by Michelin when planning a tour, how to view the condition of the planned street with Google StreetView, and much more.

Finally, the sharing of a route has been discussed, it is often an issue shortly before the start of tours, especially if the route is not "sent" from the BMW Navi to Garmin. Most of the courses provided answers for the sometimes 10 or more participants, but we still have one or two workarounds.

The interaction between the participants was great, everyone was able to bring their knowledge to the group. Everyone took something with them, even Harald learned a few things that he didn't know before.

And finally ...

After clarifying the communication technology and getting used to it briefly, the online worked fine. Due to the special situation, everyone could immediately apply the knowledge to their own environment and questions - some of which were available - could be answered super in the following session. A great thing that the club organized here for its members, for whom you have to pay a lot of money elsewhere.

Finally, another participant opinion:

"After the navigation course, I actually planned a nice tour towards Lake Constance and back over the Danube valley in MRA. Everything actually worked out. Even the "post-processing" (start times, break times, etc.) in the base camp and the transfer to my Navi V was problem-free. Without recalculation etc. drove the tour as planned. "

A big thank you to Harald for this really successful series of events!