For $500 this looks like a decent GPS. I've always been a Garmin owner and was
considering a 196 but the "Lock to Road" feature turns me off. The PDA based
GPS systems look ok, too.

Anyone near Birmingham, Alabama using one of these systems (Airmap 500 or
PDAs)?


Trip



In article , says...

Interesting...
I have to note parenthetically that I have both the 195 and 196 in the
cockpit... That I fly all over the eastern USA with these units, and
sometimes in really nasty weather where they are invaluable, and rarely have
I noted a degraded EPE, and it was both units the few times it has
happened - which was maybe three times over a number of years... I do use
windshield mounted antennas, not the stub antennas... I also have never
noticed any deviation between what the 196 is calling my position and what
the localizer/DME is showing on an instrument approach, and I use the GPS on
all instrument approaches as a backup to the primary nav... YMMV

Denny

Although the 196 is great, I've recently started to have second
thoughts... ...