Review of Anywhere Map GPS for Weather?

[John Taylor]

I'd like to buy a portable uplink weather display for single-engine
piston aircraft I fly recreationally along the east coast. I'm
impressed with VistaNav by Mercury, but it's expensive and large. I've
been looking at Garmin's 396 and 496. I see another solution is
Anywhere Map, but I've been told PDAs just crash too much.

Does anyone with extensive experience on the Anywhere Map have
performance comments to pass on?

Also, what's the deal with the uniformity of Garmin pricing? Isn't
there anyone who sells a new 496 below $2795? If so, I won't tell! In
olden days, when Head skis were at a fixed price, the way to get a
discount was to buy other items of indeterminate cost at the same time.
The only concession I've found with the 496 is shipping below cost.

Thanks!

-John T.

[Gig 601XL Builder]

John Taylor wrote:
> I'd like to buy a portable uplink weather display for single-engine
> piston aircraft I fly recreationally along the east coast. I'm
> impressed with VistaNav by Mercury, but it's expensive and large. I've
> been looking at Garmin's 396 and 496. I see another solution is
> Anywhere Map, but I've been told PDAs just crash too much.
>
> Does anyone with extensive experience on the Anywhere Map have
> performance comments to pass on?
>
> Also, what's the deal with the uniformity of Garmin pricing? Isn't
> there anyone who sells a new 496 below $2795? If so, I won't tell! In
> olden days, when Head skis were at a fixed price, the way to get a
> discount was to buy other items of indeterminate cost at the same
> time. The only concession I've found with the 496 is shipping below
> cost.
> Thanks!
>
> -John T.

John, I've not uses Anywhere Map but I have used 3 different PDAs that are
capable of running it and they all crashed often enough that I wouldn't use
one for anything involved in flight more than as a log book.

That said, Anywhere map is better than nothing at all.

As for finding a 496 below the set cost, if you find some place let me know.

[Dave Butler]

John Taylor wrote:
> I'd like to buy a portable uplink weather display for single-engine
> piston aircraft I fly recreationally along the east coast. I'm
> impressed with VistaNav by Mercury, but it's expensive and large. I've
> been looking at Garmin's 396 and 496. I see another solution is
> Anywhere Map, but I've been told PDAs just crash too much.
>
> Does anyone with extensive experience on the Anywhere Map have
> performance comments to pass on?
>
> Also, what's the deal with the uniformity of Garmin pricing? Isn't
> there anyone who sells a new 496 below $2795? If so, I won't tell! In
> olden days, when Head skis were at a fixed price, the way to get a
> discount was to buy other items of indeterminate cost at the same time.
> The only concession I've found with the 496 is shipping below cost.

There are lots of threads in the archives of rec.aviation.* about PDAs
for weather. I don't have personal experience.

Contact JA Air and propose to them that you might be interested in a new
Garmin if they sold you something else along with it for a really low
price.

Also ask JA Air about used 396s. I think that will get the price down in
the PDA range, you have a reputable dealer to stand behind it, and you
have the benefits of a purpose-built piece of hardware.

I have a 396 on my yoke. It's not ideal with loose wires going to two
antennas. It would be better if I owned by myself and could have it more
or less permanent so I could have a better solution for the loose wires.
It's wired to the GNS480 in the panel so gets its flight plan from the
480. I'm very happy with it, despite knowing it could be better.

Dave

[Paul kgyy]

On Mar 9, 3:28 pm, John Taylor > wrote:
> I'd like to buy a portable uplink weather display for single-engine
> piston aircraft I fly recreationally along the east coast. I'm
> impressed with VistaNav by Mercury, but it's expensive and large. I've
> been looking at Garmin's 396 and 496. I see another solution is
> Anywhere Map, but I've been told PDAs just crash too much.
>
> Does anyone with extensive experience on the Anywhere Map have
> performance comments to pass on?
>
> Also, what's the deal with the uniformity of Garmin pricing? Isn't
> there anyone who sells a new 496 below $2795? If so, I won't tell! In
> olden days, when Head skis were at a fixed price, the way to get a
> discount was to buy other items of indeterminate cost at the same time.
> The only concession I've found with the 496 is shipping below cost.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -John T.


I've used the AWmap GPS with XM weather for several years on an Ipaq
5550 and it has never crashed during GPS operations. I think it's a
bargain right now, actually.

[Darrel Toepfer]

"Gig 601XL Builder" <wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net> wrote:

> That said, Anywhere map is better than nothing at all.

I mentioned: http://www.pocketfms.com in another thread. My wish list is
that they could gain access to the ADS-B stuff thats rolling out here in
the Gulf of Mexico. Then we could have traffic and weather without a
subscription price tagged on by satellite providers...

[Rich]

Paul kgyy wrote:
> On Mar 9, 3:28 pm, John Taylor > wrote:
>> I'd like to buy a portable uplink weather display for single-engine
>> piston aircraft I fly recreationally along the east coast. I'm
>> impressed with VistaNav by Mercury, but it's expensive and large. I've
>> been looking at Garmin's 396 and 496. I see another solution is
>> Anywhere Map, but I've been told PDAs just crash too much.
>>
>> Does anyone with extensive experience on the Anywhere Map have
>> performance comments to pass on?
>>
>> Also, what's the deal with the uniformity of Garmin pricing? Isn't
>> there anyone who sells a new 496 below $2795? If so, I won't tell! In
>> olden days, when Head skis were at a fixed price, the way to get a
>> discount was to buy other items of indeterminate cost at the same time.
>> The only concession I've found with the 496 is shipping below cost.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> -John T.
>
>
> I've used the AWmap GPS with XM weather for several years on an Ipaq
> 5550 and it has never crashed during GPS operations. I think it's a
> bargain right now, actually.
>

I used Anywhere Map on a 3850 iPAQ for 5 years and NEVER had a crash.
Recently upgraded to a 4710 to get a faster processor to run XMWX and
same story... so far NEVER had a crash.

I particularly like the 'portrait' presentation... I want to see more of
'where I'm going' rather than what's off to the side.

Rich

[Paul kgyy]

>
> I've used the AWmap GPS with XM weather for several years on an Ipaq
> 5550 and it has never crashed during GPS operations. I think it's a
> bargain right now, actually.

What is important to remember on the PDA applications is that they
have multiple uses - address book, appointment calendar, etc. When
you close one of these windows, the app continues running, unlike in
desktop Windows. So before firing up the unit in the airplane, be
sure to do a "soft reset" of the PDA to flush out memory. Crashes are
normally caused by excess memory utilization.

I also purchased 500mb additional memory on an SD card that I leave in
the PDA full time.