Pirep: Garmin GPSMAP 296 versus 295. (very long)

I got my first GPS, a Magellan, in April of 1995. I thought it was an
absolute marvel - and it was, at the time. I got my second GPS, a Garmin GPS
III Pilot, in November of 1997, for about $650. It was a hundred times
better than the Magellan. I got my third GPS, a Garmin GPSMAP 295, in
February of 2000, for $1361. It was ten times better than the GPS III Pilot.
I got my forth GPS, a Garmin GPSmap 296, in August of 2004, for $1,721. It
is twice as good as the 295.

Is the 296 worth $360 more than the 295? Absolutely. And it's only about
$270 more in adjusted dollars (according to an internet cost of living
calculator).

I've used the 296 in flight (in Aviation mode) for twenty hours and in the
car (mostly in Automotive mode) for over ten hours. I'm not a boater so
someone else will have to comment on Marine mode.

Here's what I've learned so far about the 296.

Unpacking the 296
The GPS itself takes up only about an eighth of the box it comes in. In
the box was the GPS (with attached stick antenna), rechargeable Lithium ion
battery, spiral-bound user's manual, quick reference guide, yoke mount, dash
mount, carrying case, PC USB cable, AC power cable, cigarette lighter power
cable, Trip & Waypoint Manager CD, GA26C remote antenna with suction cup
mount, and a certificate for a free aviation database update via Garmin's
web site. I've updated the 295 numerous times from this site.
The yoke mount is huge and ugly. Fortunately, the very neat plastic
fixture that clips to the GPS itself is easily removed from the rest of the
yoke mount. I was delighted to discover a round RAM B-202 base fit perfectly
in the circular recess in the back of the Garmin fixture and that the four
mounting holes lined up. I secured the fixture to the base with longer
screws and Nyloc nuts. The yoke mount fixture includes a sliding lock that
the similar dash mount fixture doesn't have. The dash mount fixture also
doesn't have the RAM mount recess.

Initial Impressions
The 296 is smaller and much lighter. From the photos I'd seen, I
expected it to be a bit larger. The 296's manual says it's 5.7 inches wide
by 3.2 inches high by 1.9 inches deep and weighs 13.6 ounces. The 295's
manual says it's 6.8 inches wide by 3.2 inches high by 2.6 inches deep and
weighs 22.4 ounces.
My postal scale says they weigh 13.4 and 20.0 ounces with batteries. I
can't account for the large discrepancy in the weight of the 295. I weighed
it with six Duracell Ultra AA cells.
The 295 just barely fits in my front pants pocket. The 296 fits easily.
The 296 has separate cables and sockets for power and data, whereas the
295 uses a combination power/data cable. The power socket is similar to the
295's but incompatible with it. The data socket requires a high-speed USB
connection.
The antenna connector is a female BNC, same as the 295. The stick
antenna and the external antenna appear to be identical to the ones I use
with the 295.
The 8.4 volt Lithium ion battery is in a 3 x 1-5/8 x 7/8 inch molded
case. That's about three AA cells wide and one and a half cells long. The
battery clips neatly into a recess in the back of the 296. The 295 uses six
AA batteries.
The buttons are arranged differently and there's no longer a Route
button.

First Use
Without reading the manual or quick reference first (of course) I
started playing with the 296.
I installed the battery and plugged in the AC power cord. The unit
turned itself on.
It took about eight seconds to reach the first legal warning. The 295
takes about five. I later encountered two more legal warning screens. I wish
there were a "I accept responsibility for everything I do" statement I could
agree to once and never see again. The 295 has just one of these annoying
screens.
The display is lower in contrast. It has a palette of 256 somewhat
pastel colors, whereas the 295 has a palette of 16 vivid colors. Based on
representations of the display in print and in Garmin's pdf manual, before I
got the 296 I was a little concerned that its background terrain shading
would be too vivid. It's actually a bit too subdued. The display brightness
is adjusted the same way, but I have not found a way to adjust the contrast.
Despite the subdued colors, the higher resolution makes small text and
details far easier to read.
The button arrangement is better.
The menus operate in a familiar way, but there are more of them, they're
better organized, and they're more detailed. But they could be improved. I
had no trouble setting up my preferences, but found that I had to guess
sometimes whether to push Menu or Enter to get what I wanted.
The processor is much faster. The very slow map pointer slewing and name
lookups of the 295 are gone.
I had some trouble figuring out the Location menu. I found out later
that looking in the manual wouldn't have helped.
On a recent driving trip to St Louis, I (the passenger) was messing with
the 295 and attempting to input our destination. I didn't know whether it
would be St or Saint. I tried St Louis first and found only St Louis,
Saskatchewan, Canada. So I tried Saint Louis and found only Saint Louis Du
Nord, Haiti! I was baffled. I scrolled over to the St Louis area and set the
location to that point. Then I asked the 295 for the nearest city. There it
was: StPERIOD Louis. "Ah, ha!"
So, naturally, the first city I looked up on the 296 was Stperiod
Louis.
In Automotive mode, I pushed the Direct key and selected New Route. I
selected Cities from the Find - From Current Location menu and entered ST.
LOUIS. I was again impressed by the almost instant response to my rocker pad
pushes, but was dismayed to find only St. Louis, OK!
I now know the Cities - From Current Location page defaults to
"Containing" mode. That mode filters out cities that aren't within 700 or so
miles of your current position. I would not have noticed this problem if St.
Louis, MO were within this range. To find ALL cities in the database, you
have to push Menu when on the Cities - From Current Location page and select
Find by Name. The title of the page doesn't change but you can tell you're
in the "find all" mode because the second line begins with "Search Name"
rather than "Containing" and the names in the list below begin with the
digit one. Garmin should change the page's title to make it clear whether
you're in "find nearest" or "find all" mode.
Once in the Search Name mode, I was able to enter ST. LO and see it auto
complete with UIS in grayed out letters. I pushed Enter and selected St.
Louis, MO, then Go To. It asked for my Route Preference and I selected
Faster Time. Within a few seconds it had plotted a route from my house to
St. Louis.
The default for the NRST FIND button should be Containing, but Direct /
New Route / Cities should default to Search Name.
In Aviation mode this problem isn't present. Direct brings up Aviation,
Recent, User, and - apparently only if there's an active route in Automotive
mode - Other.
To find a city in Aviation mode, you push Direct, then Menu, then select
Find Land Points and push Enter. Or you can push NRST twice - I later found
that trick in the manual.
It's awkward to not be able to get to Cities from Main Menu / Points
which is limited to User and Proximity waypoints.

Installing Trip & Waypoint Manager
I expected to have problems with the MapSource Trip & Waypoint Manager
that came with the 296, and I did. To make a very long story short, I
uninstalled MapSource and reinstalled it, then manually loaded the USB
driver for the 296. I was then able to upload and download to the 296. The
USB card programmer still worked.
I sent email to Garmin's tech support and they responded quickly but
what they suggested seemed bogus to me and I didn't try it. An article on
Garmin's FAQ page appears to have the information I needed.
Once, MapSource couldn't find the 296. The next day, it was able to find
it. That hasn't reoccurred.

Data Cards
The 296 takes the same data cards. I believe the new 256 mbyte data card
only works in the 296. The data format is the same, because the cards I'd
been using in the 295 worked in the 296 without being reprogrammed. But
since the 296 has turn-by-turn autorouting, which the 295 does not, I had to
rewrite the cards with this data turned on, in order for it to autoroute
using MetroGuide USA maps.
I once powered up the 296 and it hung at 0% reading the data card. I
removed the card and it immediately came up. (You can insert or remove data
cards with power on.) I replaced the card and it hung at 0% again. I removed
the card and put it in the USB Card Programmer. I opened MapSource and it
read the card with no errors. I put the other card from the 295 into the 296
and it again hung at 0% trying to read this card. I powered off the 296 and
powered it back up. It then was able to read both cards. This problem has
reappeared once in dozens of subsequent power ups. I was again able to fix
it by powering off the 296.

MapSource
Shortly after buying the 295 I bought Garmin's MapSource MetroGuide USA.
MapSource comes with MetroGuide USA and is the application that allows you
to view maps and upload and download data to and from the GPS. MapSource
also allows you to download maps to Garmin's USB card programmer. I bought
the card programmer shortly after I bought a data card and saw how long it
took to download to it when it was in the 295.
I later bought MapSource TOPO USA. TOPO's installation recognized that I
already had MapSource installed and integrated itself with it.
I've kept MapSource and the USB driver updated to the latest versions
via Garmin's web site.
I tested my 296 using MapSource version 6.3 and MetroGuide USA version
4.01.
The MetroGuide road maps are amazingly accurate most of the time and
completely wrong infrequently. For example, a section of I-70 east of Grand
Junction, CO goes through a tunnel that MapSource doesn't know about. And
I-70 has been that way for a long time.
I recently read on Usenet a report that MetroGuide does not support
autorouting and never did. Another person corrected that by writing, "It
depends on which version of MetroGuide USA you are using. The original
MG-USA didn't support auto-routing in any form. The next version (4.0x)
supported it both on a PC and on Garmin GPS units that have auto-routing.
The latest version (5) from NavTech still supports it on a PC but no longer
on GPS units."
I sent a couple email queries to Garmin and they confirmed that
MetroGuide USA has been replaced by MetroGuide North America and that
MetroGuide North America does not support autorouting. They recommend
MetroGuide North America v6 for the 295 and City Select North America v6 for
the 296. Garmin said City Select can be used with the 295, but the file
sizes will be larger. City Select maps have to be unlocked for a specific
GPS and cannot be read by any other GPS. So you can't use the same copy of
City Select for both a 295 and a 296. Garmin should make this clear. That's
not a problem for me because I won't use the 295 for land navigation any
more.

MapSource City Select North America v6
I bought a copy of MapSource City Select North America v6 for $130 and
installed it with only a few problems. It is locked and must be unlocked
before it can be used. An unlock certificate came with the CDs (one
installation and two data). The unlock process asked that I connect my 296
so its ID could be read. I was given the option to enter it myself. The CD
was unlocked automatically via my internet connection and I didn't have to
enter the 25-digit unlock code.
The route of I-70 east of Grand Junction has been corrected and "Old
I-70" appears where MetroGuide has I-70 going. However, the course of the
Colorado River is now incorrect in that area! It is correct on Topo USA and
MetroGuide USA.
The east entrance road to Jeffco now correctly connects to northbound
Wadsworth.
City Select has a plan view of Jeffco that shows runways and taxiways.
It's not completely accurate, of course. The major error is not showing
taxiway A going all the way to the threshold of 29R. It also omits the part
of taxiways B and E between 29R and 29L. I overlaid some tracks made while I
taxiing around Jeffco and they align very nicely with the depicted layout. I
wish the 296's aviation data had detailed airport diagrams. Maybe an
entrepreneur could create detailed airport diagrams in a MapSource
compatible format.
I downloaded 7.19 mbytes of Denver Metro area autorouting maps directly
to a 16 mbyte data card in the 296. That took about 30 sec. I moved that
card to the 295. As expected, it complained immediately that it couldn't
unlock the maps. I switched to MetroGuide and downloaded 7.2 mbytes of non
autorouting maps to the data card in the 295. That took over 16 minutes! I
put the same data card in the USB Card Programmer and downloaded the same
map set in 33 seconds. I moved the data card to the 296 and it read it. I
then transferred the same data set to the 296 in 23 seconds. This experiment
shows the USB Data Card Programmer is not needed with the 296.

First On-Road Test
I loaded a data card with autorouting maps for the Denver area (from
MetroGuide USA version 4.01) and had the 296 calculate a route from my house
to my hangar. It did that in about a second.
I started out on the recommended route then intentionally deviated from
it. The 296 automatically showed the way back to its route and prompted me
when to turn to get back on it. I continued to ignore the GPS directions and
it kept recalculating the best route from my current position.
One interesting glitch in the route was the unit's insistence on taking
me past the east airport entrance and around to the north entrance. I later
realized that was because of a mapping error which didn't connect the east
entrance road with the far side of the divided highway that passes it.
The 296 will autoroute using its internal basemap if there's no
autorouting maps on the data card. It will also autoroute using a
combination of MapSource data and basemap data.

Second On-Road Test
Prior to a recent trip to Berkeley, CA, I loaded a data card with
MetroGuide USA (version 4.01) autorouting maps of the Bay area. I had not
been to Berkeley before.
While sitting in the rental car, I asked the 296 for a route from the
FBO (Kaiser at KOAK) to my niece's apartment. This was a tough test because
they live in university housing on a street that's only a couple blocks
long. We followed the specified route and it took us right to their door. We
were very impressed! It was a complicated route, too, taking us on I-880,
I-980, I-580, and I-80. The turn-by-turn instructions were very clear and
useful. The display changed from north up, which I had set, to a close in
track up display prior to each turn then reverted back to north up after we
made the turn.
The 296 unerringly led us back and forth to our hotel, through San
Francisco, around Berkeley and Oakland, and back to the airport. The 296 is
ten times more useful while driving than the 295 is.
A minor gripe is that Lock to Road can be turned off in Automotive mode,
but every time the GPS is powered up or changed from another mode back to
Automotive mode, Lock to Road turns itself back on. I'd like it to stay the
way I set it.

First Serious In-Flight Test
I used the 296 in-flight for about sixteen hours on the Berkeley trip
(headwinds both ways!) and got quite familiar with it.
The leg from Denver Jeffco (KBJC) to Provo, UT (KPVU) was VFR and the
leg from Provo to Oakland, CA (KOAK) was IFR. Coming back, Oakland to Ogden,
UT (KOGD) was IFR and Ogden to Jeffco was VFR.
I had created a proximity waypoint (more on this later) for a forest
fire TFR very near my route to Provo. That helped me keep well clear of the
area.
Coming into Oakland, I got the anticipated reroute and, because of my
familiarity with the 295, had no problem putting it into the 296. For the
same reason, I had no problem selecting vectors to Oakland's ILS 27R
approach. Leaving Oakland, I had no trouble monitoring the joining of V6
after a couple vectors.
Throughout the flights I made extensive use of the new map page
navigation arc and terrain pages. Here are the details.

Map Page Navigation Arc
I found the navigation arc surprisingly difficult to get used to, but I
finally got comfortable with it.
I set the purple bug to Course to Steer. Its default is Bearing to
Waypoint.
Intuitively, I wanted to steer to move the bug to the track pointer at
the top of the arc. I finally trained myself to steer toward the bug - just
as I would steer toward the course line on the HSI or the needle on the VOR.
I don't know why it was so hard for me to get used to doing that. Now that I
am used to it I like the navigation arc display very much.
The navigation arc only appears if the map Orientation is set to Track
Up.
The arc extends to 70 degrees right and 70 degrees left of track and has
a radius of nearly 1.5 inches. The present position symbol (from which you
can chose one of six) is about a quarter inch up from the bottom center of
the display.
The Course to Steer bug is always in "super nanny" mode. It appears to
be much more sensitive than the 295's HSI bug but that's probably only
because it's operating on a much larger arc.

Terrain Page
On the VFR legs, I used the Terrain page frequently to help verify I
would be clear of terrain ahead at my present altitude. I had no trouble at
all interpreting its display.
The altitude data also allows the 296 to display terrain altitude at the
cursor location. I found this quite useful.
I never got any terrain warnings, but saw while simulating that a
terrain warning pops up in the lower left-hand corner of any display.
I do not know if the terrain and obstacle data can be updated.
The 295 has no terrain altitude data.

Post-Trip Observations

Track Log
The only major disappoint I have with the 295 is its small track log. It
fills up after about four hours in the air.
The Pilot III has Record Mode (Off, Fill, Wrap), Interval (Resolution,
Time, Distance), and Interval Value settings. The 295 merely has Recording
(On, Off). The track log memory is much smaller in the 295 than in the Pilot
III.
The 296 fixes all that by returning the Record Mode, Interval, and Value
settings and has a much larger track log memory.
Unlike the 295, the 296 does not track when in Simulator mode. When
simulating, Record Mode defaults to Off and is grayed out and cannot be
changed. However, Interval and Value are not grayed out and can be changed.
It's okay for the default to be Record Mode Off when simulating, but I'd
like to be able to set it to not turn off.
The default Track settings are Interval = Resolution and Value = 82
feet. All my initial tracks were made at these settings. My guess is 82 feet
refers to a deviation of 82 feet from straight. The track log shows some
legs to be over a mile long and it's possible the autopilot flew that long
without deviating more than 82 feet right or left.
I was delighted that the 296's track memory is much larger. I uploaded a
full 295 track memory to MapSource then downloaded those tracks to the 296.
That used only about 10% of the 296's track memory. I had the 296's track
recording continuously for 20 hours in the air and 8 hours on the ground and
it didn't fill up.
The 296 also has the ability to save, on board, 15 tracks. I don't yet
know whether the memory for saved tracks diminishes the Active track's
memory. I hope not. I'll keep saving 90+% tracks and see what happens.
I uploaded several track logs to MapSource without difficulty. One time,
however, I could upload maps, waypoints, and routes, but was unable to
upload tracks. I would get a MapSource error whenever I included tracks or
attempted to upload them separately. I deleted the saved tracks on the 296
and was then able to successfully upload the active track. I downloaded a
large number of tracks I'd saved in MapSource and completely filled the
296's Active track buffer. I tried unsuccessfully to reproduce the error by
repeatedly saving and uploading tracks.

Proximity Waypoints
I noticed a couple years ago that MapSource allows the creation of
Proximity Waypoints. The 295 treats these as normal user-defined waypoints
and ignores the proximity attribute. The 296, however, displays proximity
waypoints with a red circle around them. The manual implies proximity
waypoints are useful only in Marine Mode, but fortunately, they also work in
Aviation Mode.
I created proximity waypoints with a 3.1 nm radius around Coors
(Rockies) and Invesco (Broncos) fields in Denver. The proximity radius can
be set from 0.01 to 99.99 units (nautical miles, statute miles, or
kilometers). I also created proximity waypoints for the TFRs in Pueblo, CO
and Tooele, UT, and for several forest fire TFRs. According to the manual,
the 296 can store only ten proximity waypoints. I hope Garmin allows for
more in a future firmware revision.
It would be great to be able to download proximity waypoints for TFRs.
Proximity waypoints can be created on the 296 and uploaded to MapSource
and vice-versa.

Flights Menu
On the trip to Oakland and back I landed four times. The Flights Menu
shows I landed many more times than that: KBJC to KPVU, 13; KPVU to KOAK,
10; KOAK to KOGD, 16 (!); KOGD to KBJC, 5. At no time during any of these
flights does the track log indicate I lost satellite reception and the
Message Log (new to the 296) says I lost satellite reception only while in a
tunnel east of Berkeley and while at a gas station in Denver. I expect this
is a simple bug Garmin will soon fix.

Runway Extensions
I thought I'd like the new runway extensions more than I actually did. I
found them distracting. The extensions appear only for the destination
airport, which is good, but they appear for all runways at that airport,
which is confusing if there are parallel runways. It would be much better to
list extensions on the Approach menu and have them operate like the ILS
localizers. It would also be useful to have numbered ticks across the
extensions each mile. The length of the extensions changes as you zoom in or
out and I found that confusing. Extensions can be turned off.

Nearest Type Field
The Position Data Page has a Nearest Type field in its lower left-hand
corner that can be configured to continuously display your distance and
bearing FROM the nearest airport, VOR, NDB, intersection, city, or waypoint.
Or, you can set it to Automatic and let it chose what to display. I set it
to VOR because ATC likes to know position relative to a VOR. I'd like it to
give bearing in cardinal and ordinal direction as well as degrees. I really
like this feature.

More Observations
The cross track error now indicates whether you're left or right of
course. That's something I wanted to see added.
You have your choice of 165 symbols for user defined waypoints.
Naturally, I wanted one it doesn't have: Forest Fire. They're organized into
nine categories, but I don't know why. I'd like Garmin to string them all
together or add an All category. I wanted to find a stadium symbol and had
to guess whether it was in Outdoors (nope) or Points of Interest (yup). Ball
Park, however, is in Outdoors.
A four line Welcome Message can be created and set to display at
power-up. After I spent a half hour counting spaces to center my message, I
discovered it's automatically centered and should be left justified when
entered. I put in my company name and 800 number to help an honest person
return it to me if it gets lost or stolen. I'd like to have a way to lock
the Welcome Message so it could not be erased. That might annoy a thief a
little bit.
When simulating, I noticed that parts of the map background diminished
momentarily in intensity every time the map was redrawn. I eventually
discovered why. It has nothing to do with simulation. Metro area shading is
On by default. The Metro shading is applied a fraction of a second after the
new map is displayed. This is annoying when you're over a metro area and
zoomed in enough that the map refreshes every second or two. This could
probably be fixed with a software modification.
The new Celestial menu shows sun and moon rise and set times and even
the phase of the moon. You can change the date, time, and location and see
the sun and moon data at that time and location.
Garmin's web site says the "Detailed basemap includes highways, major
roads, borders, rivers, lakes, and tide stations." I expected to see a tide
chart for San Francisco but didn't find one. But that's because I didn't
look when I was in San Francisco. The Tide Station page also works in
proximity mode and there isn't a tide station within its range (about 700
miles) when you're in Denver. In simulator mode, when I set the position to
San Francisco, then looked for tide stations it found a plethora of them. I
thought the tide display was cool.

Much More About the Display
According to Garmin's web site, the 295 has a 1.8 by 3.3 inch 16-color
high-contrast DSTN LCD display with 305 x 160 pixels. I measured the display
at 3.30 x 1.73 inches. That's 92 pixels per inch and 5.7 square inches.
According to Garmin's web site and the 296's manual, it has a 3.75 or
3.8 inch diagonal 256-color TFT display with 480 x 320 pixels. I measured
the display at 3.14 x 2.08 inches, which is a diagonal of 3.77 inches. That
works out to 153 pixels per inch and 6.5 square inches.
So the 296's display is 14% larger and has 66% more pixels.
According to two web sites, TFT is "Short for thin film transistor, a
type of LCD flat-panel display screen, in which each pixel is controlled by
from one to four transistors. The TFT technology provides the best
resolution of all the flat-panel techniques, but it is also the most
expensive. TFT screens are sometimes called active-matrix LCDs." "A
transflective display has a partially reflective, mirrorlike rear polarizing
medium. This transflective layer allows light from a backlight to pass
through it, while reflecting light coming from the front of the display back
through the TFT panel and adding to the backlight's light. This area is one
of constant competition as TFT companies try to find better ways to make
transflective layers that reflect as much light as possible, making them
readable even in sunlight, yet that allow enough light to pass through from
the backlight to be useful indoors or in cloudy weather."
I found the 296's display much more difficult to read at night when
dimmed to the lowest brightness level. I do not like the night mode on
either the 295 or the 296 and use day mode at all times. I found the display
easier to read at night with Terrain Shading and Metro turned off and the
base map removed by decluttering to the first level.
The "anti-reflective" coating on the display is very ineffective. Garmin
also warns that it's easily scratched. The warning is on a label that's
glued (lightly) to the display! When I removed the sticker it left a residue
that was a bit difficult to clean off. I used a pad designed to clean CCD
camera sensors and that worked well.

Manual
The printed manual (Rev A, May 2004) that came with the unit is 151
pages long and needs to be as least twice that long. I'll buy a copy of _The
Complete Guide to the Garmin GPSmap 296_ when someone writes it.
The manual does a great job of explaining things that are easy to figure
out for yourself, but is mostly silent about the details. For example, most
of the operational nuances I've mentioned above are not covered in the
manual.
The pdf manual I downloaded from Garmin's web site is Rev B, May 2004.
All the screen shots in it are poor quality color images. The printed manual
has high quality black and white images.

Disclaimer
All of the above is my opinion and I have no connection with Garmin.

I apologize for this off-topic post to rec.aviation.politics. g

Jon