"xxx" wrote in message
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PIREP Lowrance 600c

The screens are generally too cluttered and there are too many menus
with too small type to effectively make use of all the power it has.
Maybe if I had a dedicated electronics officer in the right seat it
would have worked better. As is, it seems to me that the only
practical way to use it is to set it on the ground and stick with
whatever destination and display is chosen there.

In the case of a sudden in-flight change of plans, you can always just use is
as a moving-map display and fly in the correct general direction towards any
destination you can see on the screen. It ain't perfect, but it still beats
trying to figure out a course from the sectional while you are trying to fly the
airplane.


The display is all but invisible without the backlight on. Using the
backlight, of course, chews up the battery at a great rate. I left it
at the default setting of turning the light off after 30 seconds use.
It is usable that way, but not ideal.

Wow! Is this true of all color displays? I fly behind the original
non-color Lowrance 500 and it has no such problem. The only time you might want
the backlight is at night. Perhaps I should cherish that old 500?

And that's my general feeling about the unit. It's usable, but not
ideal. It's a lot of processing power and features for the buck. It
is, however, something of a compromise in cockpit utility.

That is how I have always felt about my 500, but it is head and shoulders
better than anything I have ever had before.

As for battery life, use several sets of batteries from several different
lots before you make up your mind. I have learned the hard way, even a name
brand battery manufacturer will occasionally ship a bad lot. I have also found
that the "best by" dates printed on the batteries are often a fiction. The best
batteries are fresh batteries.

Vaughn