I don't think anyone else does satellite to plane weather, EXCEPT
Garmin, do they?

You mean for handhelds I guess. There are several vendors piping NEXRAD
for MFDs.

Palm/pocket/tablet-PC versions abound. I almost bought one of the
tablet PC versions at OSH, but the absurd price tag (and fear of a hard
drive crash at altitude) scared me off.

We pilots are apparently just too small a niche market for the other
main players in the market (Lowrance, AvMap) to jump aboard. It's
frustrating, but understandable.

But don't get me wrong -- weather is a wonderful tool to have on board,
and the 496 is a fine piece of equipment. What I hate is that it could
easily be made perfect, with just a few minor tweaks, but (I'm guessing
here) Garmin apparently wants to keep the box small enough to use as a
dashboard automotive GPS -- which precludes making the changes
necessary to turn it into a truly useful aviation GPS. (It really IS a
fantastic automotive GPS. I am truly, 100% satisfied with it in that
mode. Unfortunately, that represents about 5% of my usage, to date.)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"