GPS recomendations

[Dieselten]

All I can add is if you want a GPS which works in an aircraft, buy an proper, purpose-built aviation GPS, with the required aviation database. It will work. It is designed to work in aircraft. It will fit in the aircraft. It will be capable of being powered by the aircraft.

 

Buying anything else to save a few dollars is a bit like buying oats. If you want good quality oats then you pay what the market asks for them. If you'll settle for the oats after they've passed through the horse, well, that's cheaper!

 

 

[facthunter]

Funny. I agree with you there. For a while it thought you were on about hor$++t. The aviation Database is needed near CTA, but you still have to know how to apply it. I have been happy with garmin. Nev

 

 

[dazza 38]

I reckon when I get around to buying one.I will buy a Garmin Aera

 

 

[poteroo]

I think you can simply replace the G196 with a 296,(colour, and much better) while using the same aerials, cabling,cradle. Often called a 'slide-in' ......the mind boggles! The G296 is going to be useful for several more years, despite Garmin trying to push everyone into the Aera series. I've seen used 296's on eBay, and on other sites such as www.barnstormers.com for as low as $250. All you need to do is ascertain that they do fit. I think the 495 has different connections - smart thinking Mr Garmin - so you can't use them as a 'slide-in'

 

Have found my iPad and the OzRunways app is just great for getting around CTA, using VTC or VNC, while keeping my conventional G296 GPS set onto a needed waypoint. Seems to work well in both C206 and GA8 Airvan.

 

happy days,

 

 

[Dieselten]

295 and 495 fit the same docking-mount and are pin-for-pin compatible. Basically the 495 is a faster, product-improved 295. Both are discontinued and getting harder to find by the day. I have one of each and will not part with them.

 

The Aera series have a voice-coil speaker which will pull a magnetic compass 30 degrees off-course or more if you mount it in a panel near the compass. I really dislike the Aera series as an aviation GPS. They work well enough in cars. They are not, and never will be, a proper aviation GPS until that stupid voice-coil speaker is removed!

 

Garmin's ploy of discontinuing portable aviation GPS such as the 295/495 series and forcing you to go to the larger and more expensive 695 family (or beyond, to the Aera 700-series) is a retrograde step, clearly driven by market-research gurus and consultants who have never flown and don't even know what an aeroplane looks like or actually does. Panel-space is limited in our types of aircraft. Touch-screens are less than satisfactory in a small aircraft that might be moving about a fair amount at times. If someone from Garmin ever reads this, bring back the 495/496! (Yet they still make the cludgy, monochrome and slow 196...go figure!)

 

 

[poteroo]

295 and 495 fit the same docking-mount and are pin-for-pin compatible. Basically the 495 is a faster, product-improved 295. Both are discontinued and getting harder to find by the day. I have one of each and will not part with them.The Aera series have a voice-coil speaker which will pull a magnetic compass 30 degrees off-course or more if you mount it in a panel near the compass. I really dislike the Aera series as an aviation GPS. They work well enough in cars. They are not, and never will be, a proper aviation GPS until that stupid voice-coil speaker is removed!

 

Garmin's ploy of discontinuing portable aviation GPS such as the 295/495 series and forcing you to go to the larger and more expensive 695 family (or beyond, to the Aera 700-series) is a retrograde step, clearly driven by market-research gurus and consultants who have never flown and don't even know what an aeroplane looks like or actually does. Panel-space is limited in our types of aircraft. Touch-screens are less than satisfactory in a small aircraft that might be moving about a fair amount at times. If someone from Garmin ever reads this, bring back the 495/496! (Yet they still make the cludgy, monochrome and slow 196...go figure!)

Right on the money! I have a spare 296 with all the yoke mount paraphenalia- which we use in any other aircraft without one. Will not part with it! The 495 doesn't really seem that much better to me - just that it allows for traffic and weather options in the US.

 

Can't understand Garmins' thinking either. The Aera series with touchscreens are a complete disaster for use in lighter and bouncier aircraft....which is where we all are operating. They obviously don't even know about anywhere else outside the North American market.

 

happy days,

 

 

[Zibi]

What do you need those fancy GPS for?

 

Just use Iphone and their maps - might not get you where you want to get, but will get you on the news: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-10/apple-maps-strands-motorists-looking-for-mildura/4418400