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Old December 13th 06, 08:11 PM posted to rec.aviation.owning
Marco Leon
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Posts: 319
Default 396/496 installation options.

Jay Honeck posted a link to a pic of his setup with the angled
AirGizmos dock but I can't find the post (Jay, can you post it again?).
I don't like the way the angled doc looks in the panel so I prematurely
decided I won't get it. I've since changed my mind when after receiving
my Garmin 496 last Monday, I noticed that the terrain detail quickly
disappears from view when viewing it from an angle. Oddly, other detail
like the airspace and route lines can still be seen.

The panel mount is probably the most clean and permanent in my opinion
and I'll be ordering the hardware after the holidays.

Marco

wrote:
Our club is contemplating a 396 or 496 for each of our aircraft. It
would be more or less permanently mounted in the plane (Piper Archer
and Dakota). I've seen several yoke mounts, some panel/post type
mounts, the slick AirGizmo's avioincs stack mounts. Our panels are
fairly full and the preferred panel mount would necessitate mounting
the unit on the right hand avionics stack. This seems a bit far away
from the pilot both for readability and for reaching across to run the
gps. I see there are options to at least cant it toward the pilot for
better visibility but without bifocals the readability may still be in
doubt! One obvious objection to a yoke mount is the dangling wires
which we'd like to eliminate or at least minimize as much as possible.
Are there any really great ideas to limit this issue? Panel visiblity
over the gps is another as well as usability when its less than a
smooth day and the yoke is not 'stationary'. I've seen one mount on
the top of the glarshield as well and wondered about how much that
blocked the view and whether sunlight would wreak havoc on the lcd
display or what the heat of summer sun would do to the gps.

Anyway, if anyone could share their particular install, mounting
hardware used, preferred location, readability at a distance, etc. that
would be great. The best options I've seen are for Beechcraft yokes
but that's not an option on a Piper.

thanks,
matt.