"Rocky Stevens" wrote in message
...
On Aug 9, 2:32 am, "Bravo Two Zero" wrote:
Any comments yet on the AV8OR ?

A long thread about it he http://forums.aopa.org/showthread.php?t=45178

I post under RVDriver in that forum. I got my RV80R at Oshkosh Monday a
week ago. In summary, the unit works well as a stand alone GPS, and after
some back and forth with Bendix/King and WxWorx, my XM weather is working
now.

The plusses of the unit:
- The price is right for a GPS with XM capability.
- You have a lot of ability to customize the display.
- The interface is intuitive.
- It picks up satellites very quickly.

The minuses:
- It comes with a CD not a manual. The CD ain't so handy when trying to
figure something out either in the airplane or in the car. Basically, you
have to have a PC with you anytime you want to refer to the "manual".
- The screen brightness is marginal. In full sunlight under my airplane's
bubble canopy, it is a struggle. Comparing the spec's of the AV8OR and the
Garmin 396, the screen brightness is very similar, for what that's worth.
- The arrangement of the cords is poor. It should have been designed with
all of the cords plugging into one side, preferably with 90 degree
connectors to keep the footprint down. Instead, the three cords that plug
into the AV8OR (GPS, Power, and XM) each plug into a different side, making
the overall footprint much larger than necessary and making wire bundling an
issue. I switched my unit to the bluetooth option to eliminate one of the
cords.
- The supplied battery has a very short life. Maybe 1.5 hours. You'll
need a 12v outlet in the airplane to get much use from this unit.