On Mar 3, 5:47 am, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
"Jay Honeck" wrote innews:kaLyj.59040$yE1.36721@attbi_s21:



Of course, it is much easier just to get the Garmin 396 or 496 but
I much prefer a larger screen. So if Lowrance does not come up with an
XM weather capable GPS next month, I will most likely get the AvMap.

Good plan. Although having XM weather on board has been fantastic,
and (in the two years we've flown with it on-board) weather has made
our flying MUCH safer, I often regret buying the 496.

The 496 has an undersized screen, with poor readability (compared to
the competition), a slow processor that drives us nuts, and it cost as
much as my Toyota pickup truck. It's actually a much better
"entertainment center" (with XM radio) than it is a good GPS, which is
why we rely on our Lowrance 2000c as our primary navigator in flight.

Not that the 496 doesn't have nice features. The AOPA data is quite
useful, and the airport diagrams are great. But the underlying design
of the unit itself is inferior to the competition, and the price is
just stupidly high. If I didn't have on-board weather yet, I'd either
wait for Garmin to fix the flaws in the 496, or I'd wait for Lowrance
and AvMap to *finally* mount the weather horse.

God grief, do you ever look out the window?

Bertie

What's there to see? He's flying over Iowa....