Garmin 195...295...296...396....

"john smith" wrote:

I've not heard of anything new coming out, the 396 is pretty new. To
me, the biggest jump happens in the 296 because you get terrain. Flying
singles over mountains makes the terrain feature almost a requirement.
Those on the East coast my disagree. The 396 is only better if you
maintain the $50/month subscription, otherwise it turns into a 296.

Does the 296 really have the capabilities of the 396 minus the XM?
Does an XM receiver really cost $1100? (list price difference between a
296 and 396)

I don't know, but I suspect not. There are also software and hardware
development costs to be covered.

You can't blame Garmin for charging what the market will bear when they have
a product that everyone wants and there is no competition; that's capitalism.
396s were selling so fast last year, I bet Garmin was wishing they'd priced
them a little higher.

--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

On 06/01/06 14:15, Robert M. Gary wrote:
I was looking at 2,000 foot T.V. towers the other day. The 296 alarmed
them before I saw them.

It's really a strange feeling flying near those towers even if more than
1000' above them. The thing is they "appear" to be in your airspace while
the rest of the planet "appears" so much further below.

It looks like you're going to trip over them - really makes you want to
keep a safe distance ;-)


Newps wrote:
Robert M. Gary wrote:
Only if you're IFR. I have NavGPS software on my PDA that has terrain
and was really looking forward to it when it came out. Now with all
these hours terrain serves no useful purpose when VFR.




--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA

john smith wrote:

Does the 296 really have the capabilities of the 396 minus the XM?
Does an XM receiver really cost $1100? (list price difference between a
296 and 396)

It's not just the receiver, of course, it also has to decode and display all the
weather information and provide the user interface to access it.

The 396 can display TIS from your Garmin mode-S transponder.
The 396 can interface with your panel-mount GPS 430/530/480.
The 396 can be an XM music receiver.
The 396 can tune your SL30 or SL40 NAV/COMM.

The 296 has a 200 MHz processor, the 396 has ???

Looks like the GPS engine is the same, the display is the same, the battery is
the same, the case is the same, the database is the same. The 396 weighs a tiny
bit more.

296: 10,000 point automatic track log; 15 saved tracks; 700 points per saved
track; lets you retrace your path in both directions

396: 10,000-point automatic track log; 15 saved tracks; 1,000 points per saved
track; lets you retrace your path in both directions

I'm no Garmin expert, just put together this list from Garmin's web page. I
probably missed some stuff.

Why wait? The 396 is fairly new. Every time Garmin's come out with a new
model, I've traded up. Never had a bit of trouble selling the old one.

The 396 will likely wind up in my plane and maybe eventually on ebay to
make room for the upgrade if the next iteration is worth the trade.

thanks.

Dale

"Mark Hansen" wrote in message
...
It's really a strange feeling flying near those towers even if more than
1000' above them. The thing is they "appear" to be in your airspace while
the rest of the planet "appears" so much further below.

It looks like you're going to trip over them - really makes you want to
keep a safe distance ;-)

--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA

Thank God we only have little bitty TV towers that measure in the low 100s
of feet here in the Phoenix area.

Of course, the fact that these little bitty towers sit on 1500'+ foot
mountains which themselves, are poking up out of a 1500' valley floor, are
another matter entirely.

(Tongue --- Cheek)

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
Chandler, AZ

Looks like the GPS engine is the same, the display is the same,

The 396 has a brighter and better display

Karl
"Curator"

The 396 has audible alerts if interfaced. I think that is pretty nice when
you could hear an alert when you are otherwise overloaded. I assume it
would help if you were overloaded or you wouldn't need the warning would
you? It also has audible driving directions. I don't have one but maybe
someday I will upgrade my 196.

I can tell you that I for one, that I miss not having the full approaches in
them so I can follow along and the few times I go into a big airport it
would sure be nice to have the SIDs and STARS in them instead of flying only
on a KLN90B.

The other capability I would really like is the ability to upload/download
flight plans to it from a PC. That stinking MapSource only works good for
roads.




"Dave Butler" wrote in message
news:1149197657.288989@sj-nntpcache-3...
john smith wrote:

Does the 296 really have the capabilities of the 396 minus the XM?
Does an XM receiver really cost $1100? (list price difference between a
296 and 396)

It's not just the receiver, of course, it also has to decode and display
all the weather information and provide the user interface to access it.

The 396 can display TIS from your Garmin mode-S transponder.
The 396 can interface with your panel-mount GPS 430/530/480.
The 396 can be an XM music receiver.
The 396 can tune your SL30 or SL40 NAV/COMM.

The 296 has a 200 MHz processor, the 396 has ???

Looks like the GPS engine is the same, the display is the same, the
battery is the same, the case is the same, the database is the same. The
396 weighs a tiny bit more.

296: 10,000 point automatic track log; 15 saved tracks; 700 points per
saved track; lets you retrace your path in both directions

396: 10,000-point automatic track log; 15 saved tracks; 1,000 points per
saved track; lets you retrace your path in both directions

I'm no Garmin expert, just put together this list from Garmin's web page.
I probably missed some stuff.

"DB" == Dave Butler writes:

DB If you like, you can jump back and forth between the two
DB levels of subscription on a month-to-month basis.

Can you turn the subscription on and off?

For instance, most of the year I fly locally in Northern California,
within a few hundred miles of home base, and the weather is very
predictable: sun inland, fog on the coast in the morning. But once a
year I like to fly an overnight cross-country and then the WX would be
very handy.

Has anyone tried the vistanav software (www.vistanav.com)? Reading
their website and reading through the operating manual, it appears that
it does everything the 396 does, and then much much much more. With
the wx package i believe its just shy of 5 amu but certainly adds a lot
more features such as Highway in the Sky, Chart view type software, 2D
and 3D views, and also very handy (for someone like me who needs to get
at their email) the LS800 computer can be taken from the cockpit and
used in the hotel or wherever you're staying as a real full functioning
computer with builting 802.11. The GPS and WX units connect to this
wirelessly (bluetooth) so you can stick those devices under your seat
or in the back. The screen measures 8x5 (roughly) on this computer too
compared to the small Garmin screen.

I have a Garmin now, however once the vistanav contains Canadian
information (they told me 6 - 9 month) i'm getting in line.

-dr

Bob Fry wrote:
"DB" == Dave Butler writes:


DB If you like, you can jump back and forth between the two
DB levels of subscription on a month-to-month basis.

Can you turn the subscription on and off?

For instance, most of the year I fly locally in Northern California,
within a few hundred miles of home base, and the weather is very
predictable: sun inland, fog on the coast in the morning. But once a
year I like to fly an overnight cross-country and then the WX would be
very handy.

Sorry, it's been too long since I've had that discussion with them. I don't
remember all the restrictions. Seems like there was some kind of n-month
contract to start up. Give them a call or scan their web site.