C170 PLT USING HANDHELD GPS ENTERS CLASS C AIRSPACE WITHOUT 2-WAY COM. GPS MALFUNCTION.

Narrative

FLYING VFR FROM RAL TO CCB; USING APOLLO PRECEDUS HANDHELD GPS FOR NAVIGATIONAL REF. CRUISE ENRTE; POS AND STATUS SEEMED FINE. VFR CONDITIONS; VISIBILITY RPTED 10 MI. CONTINUATION OF FLT FROM RAL TO CCB; A 'BIG ARPT' SEEMED TO GET CLOSER AND CLOSER ACCORDING TO GPS POS; IS STILL OUT OF ONTARIO CLASS C. FROM A VISUAL STANDPOINT; POS WAS DEFINITELY IN CLASS C AIRSPACE; DID AN IMMEDIATE R TURN AND FLEW VISUALLY TO CCB. WHEN AIRPLANE LANDED; GPS INDICATED LOCATION WAS BURBANK. TURNED OFF GPS; THEN BACK ON; POS NOW AT CCB. CALLED APOLLO; SPOKE TO TECHNICIAN. THEY HAD RECEIVED NUMEROUS CALLS ABOUT ERRONEOUS POS; SAID A NEW SATELLITE WAS PUT IN ORBIT AND MOVED POS OF SOME SATELLITES WITHOUT ANY NOTIFICATION; THEREFORE MY GPS DIDN'T HAVE THE RIGHT ALMANAC. HE SAID THERE WERE A TOTAL OF 26 SATELLITES; MINE SHOWED 25. HE SUGGESTED TO LEAVE GPS ON FOR 45 MINS TO ACQUIRE NEW ALMANAC. LEFT GPS ON; NOW SHOWS A TOTAL OF 26 SATELLITES. GPS POS SEEM CORRECT. I DIDN'T SEE ANY NOTAM ABOUT GPS. I WOULD DEFINITELY LIKE TO KNOW IF THIS IS AN APOLLO PROB OR DID THIS AFFECT OTHER MANUFACTURERS OF GPS. CONCLUSION: USE HANDHELD GPS AS A REF ONLY -- DOESN'T HAVE RECEIVER AUTONOMOUS INTEGRITY MONITOR. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: RPTR STATES THAT THERE HAVE BEEN NO FURTHER PROBS WITH HIS HANDHELD GPS NOR HAS HE HEARD OF OTHERS WITH PROBS. THE TECHNICIAN WITH WHOM HE SPOKE SAID HE HAD BEEN OUT HIKING AND USING HIS HANDHELD GPS AND IT WAS INDICATING A WRONG POS. HE LATER DISCOVERED IT WAS FROM THE SAME PROB AS RPTR; THE GPS HAD NOT UPDATED ITS ALMANAC WITH THE NEW SATELLITE AND SO WAS GIVING ERRONEOUS INFO. THE GPS PRIORITIZES WITH FIRST POS INFO; THEN UPDATE OF THE ALMANAC; THUS THE WRONG POS AT TIMES. THE COMPANY FALLBACK IS THAT THE HANDHELD WAS NOT DESIGNED AS A PRIMARY NAV INST AND SHOULD NEVER BE USED AS SUCH. RPTR FEELS THE COMPANY OUGHT TO DEVELOP SOME WAY TO LET THE PUBLIC KNOW OF NEW SATELLITES AND THE NEED FOR AN UPDATE ON THE ALMANAC.