XM question for Garmin 396/496 owers

What are the weather overlay capabilities of these units? Can you overlay a
radar map on top of your airspace map? Across a route you are navigating?

The reason I ask is that the Bendix/King AV8OR I have does not have these
capabilities and I'm trying to get a better understanding of what
capabilities I'm forgoing by choosing the AV8OR over a Garmin product.

What are the weather overlay capabilities of these units? Can you overlay
a radar map on top of your airspace map? Across a route you are
navigating?

Yes, yes, and yes. Everything -- airspace, navigation, and radar returns --
can be shown on the same map. (You can add satellite, too.)

Sadly, the 496's screen is so little that it's difficult to see any of this
great stuff.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I like the size of the 496's screen. I find I can easily make it "bigger" by
getting closer to it. g

Jay Honeck wrote, "... Sadly, the 496's screen is so little that it's
difficult to see any of this great stuff."

What are the weather overlay capabilities of these units? Can you overlay
a radar map on top of your airspace map? Across a route you are
navigating?

Think of the presentation you see when you go to aviationweather.gov.
That is pretty much what you get on the 496.

Depending on which of the two available XM WS services you subscribe to,
echo cloud tops and direction of movement, lightning, winds aloft,
surface analysis, severe weather, SIGMETS/AIRMETS, satelite mosic and
NEXRAD.

I used the winds aloft function on my return from OSH to take advantage
of an available 15 kt tailwind at 6000 ft.

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
What are the weather overlay capabilities of these units? Can you
overlay
a radar map on top of your airspace map? Across a route you are
navigating?

Think of the presentation you see when you go to aviationweather.gov.
That is pretty much what you get on the 496.

It does look something like that, but there is a difference that most people
don't know about that makes a huge difference.

XM has their own very powerful weather processor rather than use the NWS's
processing functions. What this means is they are taking the raw scan data
and developing their own composite. The NWS waits until all scans are
finished and then they process all of them at once. The result is the
weather 'jumps' every few minutes when the update is performed and the new
composite is developed. XM processes each scan as it comes in and updates
accordingly. The result is a much faster update.

Thanks for the XM weather processing info, Mike. I didn't know that.

I have my 496 on the yoke, using a RAM mount. I agree the location and
screen size are just right.

In article IvKrk.309937$yE1.95597@attbi_s21,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

What are the weather overlay capabilities of these units? Can you overlay
a radar map on top of your airspace map? Across a route you are
navigating?

Yes, yes, and yes. Everything -- airspace, navigation, and radar returns --
can be shown on the same map. (You can add satellite, too.)
Sadly, the 496's screen is so little that it's difficult to see any of this
great stuff.

That's because you have your 496 mounted in the dock in your panel.
I use a RAM suction cup mount to place the 496 within 12-inches of my
face. I don't like the yoke mount that comes with the 496.
I zoom in and out to obtain the best weather picture as necessary.

On 2008-08-23, John Smith wrote:
That's because you have your 496 mounted in the dock in your panel.
I use a RAM suction cup mount to place the 496 within 12-inches of my
face. I don't like the yoke mount that comes with the 496.
I zoom in and out to obtain the best weather picture as necessary.

That's one reason my 496 is mounted on the center console, to the front of
the map case/arm rest. It's a lot more redaable there. The other reason is
that there's not a lot of other places to put it in the Zodiac...
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
Fairmont, MN (FRM) (Yes, that's me!)
AMD Zodiac CH601XLi N55ZC

Jay Maynard wrote:
On 2008-08-23, John Smith wrote:
That's because you have your 496 mounted in the dock in your panel.
I use a RAM suction cup mount to place the 496 within 12-inches of my
face. I don't like the yoke mount that comes with the 496.
I zoom in and out to obtain the best weather picture as necessary.

That's one reason my 496 is mounted on the center console, to the front of
the map case/arm rest. It's a lot more redaable there. The other reason is
that there's not a lot of other places to put it in the Zodiac...


There would be Jay if you didn't have the Avionics stack out of a G-V in
there.

Yes, yes, and yes. Everything -- airspace, navigation, and radar
returns --
can be shown on the same map. (You can add satellite, too.)
Sadly, the 496's screen is so little that it's difficult to see any of
this
great stuff.

That's because you have your 496 mounted in the dock in your panel.
I use a RAM suction cup mount to place the 496 within 12-inches of my
face. I don't like the yoke mount that comes with the 496.

Even before I had it panel docked (which, BTW, makes it more -- not less --
readable, by putting it at nearly eye-level) that dinky screen drove me
nuts. I like your suction mount solution better than a yoke mount (which
I -- like most people -- used), though. When it was yoke mounted I couldn't
scrunch down far enough to "make the screen bigger by getting closer" --
especially with old(er) eyes. Now, if needed, the co-pilot can stick their
face right up to that miniscule screen.

I've said it before here, but it bears repeating: The 496 is a compromise.
It's a so-so GPS and an excellent entertainment center that provides XM
weather in the cockpit. It's only the latter feature that makes it
worthwhile to own.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"