In article ,
Ryan Ferguson wrote:
The G430/530 are the most popular, cost-effective, and reliable GA
devices of their kind built to date. But okay. (Shrug)

Saying that something is the "most popular" device doesn't imply that
"everyone loves it," which is something that you have stated in this
thread. Microsoft Windows is the most popular desktop operating system,
but I can guarantee you that there are quite a few folks who really
don't like it.



No kidding... but the bugs generally aren't serious, and they're
usually addressed promptly. In 5 years of owning (and constantly using)
a 295, there's been precisely one time that a bug actually caused me to
reboot the unit. That bug was addressed in a firmware revision, by the
way. Folks running the CV rig will generally deal with quite a few more
"bugs."

Well, I run the "CV rig" right now, and can't think of a major
show-stopping bug that I've encountered. Their recent releases of
software seem to be very stable and work well.



I really don't hear that many
folks complaining about their AWM system "crapping out" anymore, but I'm
only a fairly recent user.

I hear it all the time... and read their forums, if you need more data
on that point.

Actually, I do read their forums daily, and I don't see it. What I do
see is the fact that they provide public forums, and they tolerate folks
posting bug reports and squawks on those forums, and they are very
responsive to those types of posts. What other company permits bug
reports and squawks on their forums, much less has a company president
who responds to them on a near-daily basis? As far as I am aware,
Garmin doesn't even host forums, much less forums where the president of
the company and developers participate and respond to issues and
suggestions.

CV was late to the game with XM weather, and my understanding is that it
took them a while to get it stable on their software platform. However,
they seem to have put significant effort into fixing the problems as of
late, and the result is a system that is probably more stable than most
of their competition. I can say that I demo'ed some of the other
PDA-based XM weather software, and found many of the products to be of
questionable quality compared to the CV offering.



really don't understand where all of the alarming hype is coming from
surrounding these systems. I will admit that they aren't "one-touch"
systems and it does help to have an understanding of how they work, but
that's true for operating an aircraft as well.

What you're failing to recognize is that it helps to understand the
"appliance," the operating system, the specific hardware you're using
with the software, the Bluetooth setup, the configuration... these are
all pretty technical things to have to mess with compared to an
all-in-one box that requires NO special knowledge on the part of the
user. That's asking a lot of a marketplace which now has the choice
between the former and the latter.

What you're failing to recognize is that I've repeatedly said that I
believe the 396 will be a great system, and that if it lives up to the
hype I might even buy one. I am skeptical that it will live up to the
hype of being such a perfect product as you and some others seem to
suggest.

When I purchased my Control Vision system in April, it worked out of the
box. I just turned it on and launched the program. It just worked.
Sure, it wasn't one touch, but I had never used a PocketPC device
before, and I had never used a Bluetooth device before. Call it luck or
whatever you want, but reading those same CV forums that you reference
above, I don't see hoards of folks complaining that they can't get the
system they just bought to work.

Before I purchased the CV system, I heard all of the comments that you
are stating here. In addition, I heard about how horrible CV's support
was. When I actually did some legwork and went to their forums, I
discovered that the comments that I had heard were way overblown. I
spoke to some locals who had the CV system and they had received good
support from CV. I have found CV's support to be excellent as well.



JKG