Garmin GpsMap 396 - Flight Test #4

Yesterday we planned on a proposed flight 50 miles away for dinner with
a light GA airplane newbie on board . The radar at home showed a very
narrow band of showers to the Northwest on a SW - NE line marching SE
towards us. The rain was limited to the lightest 2 green shades with an
occasional yellow dot showing here and there. In my experience, this is
usually light if it makes it to the surface at all. It looked like it
would take about 3-4 hours plus to arrive given its speed of advance.
Normally, I would make the "go decision" based on this and launch.

We went off to the airport and prepared the plane for the trip. Once the
396 had acquired weather data on the ground, it already showed the once
narrow band of green to be a much wider band of nearly solid yellow with
a few orange dots growing. This is usually some pretty moderate to heavy
rain and I was uncomfortable in challenging it. So, we went up locally
to show the newbie the wonders of the sky since the rain was several
hours away and the local skies were high broken. I did not do a whole
lot of testing, but the sat reception after upgrading to SW version 3.2
was much improved. Many more sats near the top. Never lost sat lock.

After a while, the rain band got wider still and I was convinced I did
the right thing scrubbing. We may have made it there and back, but it
would be awfully close. Then, the animation on the 396 looked like the
line had actually sped up in its Southeast track. I was now positive I
made the right choice.

Having this information in front of me was invaluable. Ordinarily, we
would have made the trip because we would not have known about the
deteriorating conditions. As the heavy rain would have started hitting
the windshield, I would have been torn between pressing on (with the old
radar information) or turning around because it had obviously changed.

As a funny aside, the rain did speed up and arrived 1.5 hours later.
However, right after we landed, the rain mass began to deteriorate again
to very light stuff. Our entire route saw only a few drops here and
there. This was a good illustration of how quickly things can change and
how valuable this info in the cockpit can be.

I am definitely keeping this thing!

Thanks,
Mike

I am definitely keeping this thing!

Thanks, for all the PIREPs, Mike. They have been very helpful.

Mary and I are reluctantly considering buying the 396, precisely for
the reasons you just outlined in your post. It's a great tool --
perhaps, even, life-saving -- but (IMHO) it's just saddled with a
too-small screen.

We're holding out till OSH, under the (perhaps foolish) hope that
Lowrance or AvMap will finally introduce a weather-capable unit. If
they don't, we'll just have to get used to that dinky screen, I guess.

(Caveat: This isn't really a slam on the 396 per se. After flying
behind the AvMap and the Airmap 2000c, *everything* else on the market
looks "dinky"...)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message ups.com...
I am definitely keeping this thing!

Thanks, for all the PIREPs, Mike. They have been very helpful.

Mary and I are reluctantly considering buying the 396, precisely for
the reasons you just outlined in your post. It's a great tool --
perhaps, even, life-saving -- but (IMHO) it's just saddled with a
too-small screen.

We're holding out till OSH, under the (perhaps foolish) hope that
Lowrance or AvMap will finally introduce a weather-capable unit. If
they don't, we'll just have to get used to that dinky screen, I guess.

(Caveat: This isn't really a slam on the 396 per se. After flying
behind the AvMap and the Airmap 2000c, *everything* else on the market
looks "dinky"...)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"


IMHO, the 396 is over priced. Sure, the nexrad radar stuff is good to know, but it is not a real picture of the storms.
It is a representation of the echoes from the doppler radar station. The doppler is limited in that if a heavy down pour
is happening, it can not see through that down pour very well and other stations need to help out with interpolating the
data. I do like the METAR information, but like the radar, you can get updated from FSS or ATC real time also, but it
does take talking on the radio ;-)

".Blueskies." wrote:

IMHO, the 396 is over priced.

Then don't buy one. That's how a free market works.

Sure, the nexrad radar stuff is good to know, but it is not a real picture
of the storms.

It is plenty real enough--I've been using it to dodge CBs in Thunderstorm
Alley for two years. I promise you that what you see on the screen is what
you will see out he window.

It is a representation of the echoes from the doppler radar station. The
doppler is limited in that if a heavy down pour is happening, it can not
see through that down pour very well and other stations need to help out
with interpolating the data.

Which makes it better than on-board radar, which has no way to overcome
attenuation.

I do like the METAR information, but like the radar, you can get updated
from FSS or ATC real time also, but it does take talking on the radio
;-)

Ever try to maintain a mental picture of moving thunderstorms by talking to
Fligh****ch and looking at a sectional? It's like flying blind compared to
having an animated NEXRAD picture in front of you.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

"Mike Spera" wrote:


I am definitely keeping this thing!


By now, you have probably reached the "How did I ever live without this
thing?" stage.

I can't imagine that I ever thought it was reasonable to do a blind, airport
to airport hop-skotch from Mobile to Houston in a state of high anxiety over
thunderstorms the whole way. Talk about the bad old days!

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

IMHO, the 396 is over priced. Sure, the nexrad radar stuff is good to know, but it is not a real picture of the storms.
It is a representation of the echoes from the doppler radar station. The doppler is limited in that if a heavy down pour
is happening, it can not see through that down pour very well and other stations need to help out with interpolating the
data. I do like the METAR information, but like the radar, you can get updated from FSS or ATC real time also, but it
does take talking on the radio ;-)



I agree that it is overpriced. My earlier whining attests to that. But,
I'm not sure about the assessment about the National Nexrad composite
being somehow inaccurate. Because several stations view the rain events
from multiple angles, I believe what you do get is an accurate
representation. On board radar suffers from attenuation (low power,
small aperature) but that is balanced by the fact that on board is real
time. I thought that high powered, large aperature, ground based weather
radar could punch through about any weather. Am I misunderstanding the
capabilities of these units and this system? Anyone have objective data
and stats?

I also like the Metar/TAF/TFR data being at hand. Yes, I agree that you
can call FSS. If on an IFR plan, you have to check out and back in to do
so. During moderate turbulence in solid IMC, looking at the 396 is WAY
less workload for me. Also, I can scroll ahead and view METARs along the
route, or off-route to find a better path. In IMC, there is no way I can
even see the red blob in my path to even ask for a heading change. If
ATC is not busy, they may tell me, maybe not.

Is this worth the current price, probably not to some. But, with tens of
thousands invested in this airplane, ANYTHING that will increase its
utility is worth considering to me.

Thanks for the alternate viewpoint. The GPS makers need to be listening in.

Mike

Jay Honeck wrote:

I am definitely keeping this thing!


Thanks, for all the PIREPs, Mike. They have been very helpful.

Mary and I are reluctantly considering buying the 396, precisely for
the reasons you just outlined in your post. It's a great tool --
perhaps, even, life-saving -- but (IMHO) it's just saddled with a
too-small screen.

We're holding out till OSH, under the (perhaps foolish) hope that
Lowrance or AvMap will finally introduce a weather-capable unit. If
they don't, we'll just have to get used to that dinky screen, I guess.

(Caveat: This isn't really a slam on the 396 per se. After flying
behind the AvMap and the Airmap 2000c, *everything* else on the market
looks "dinky"...)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay,

I agree totally about the screen. I will take some getting used to.
After the Airmap 1000, this thing looks puny. But there are quite a few
other considerations. Remember, I am still wincing in pain over the
price tag, so I am by no means 100% sold on this purchase. As it begins
to perform as expected I may get there some day. I would already be
there at $1495

First off, the Lowrance software won't let you resize the fonts. A big
screen is not of much use if you cannot read it. Maybe later versions of
software fixed this. When I actually had a dialog with someone at
Lowrance (a feat of unimaginable difficulty), they said it was not on
their "to-do" list last year. The Garmin allows you to independently
resize large airports, small airports, and cities.

Next, the resolution of the Garmin is far superior to the Lowrance. I am
not sure of the exact specs. But, it is like the difference between an
IBM Thinkpad and an Apple Powerbook. Even with less than perfect near
vision, I can read SMALLER text on a better, smaller screen.

Moving on, you can declutter the Garmin in 3 stages, just by repeatedly
pressing "enter" while on the map page. Quick, elegant. I believe the
Lowrance makes you go through several menus. I absolutely had to turn
off highways on the 1000 or I could not even read the screen with
Ray-Bans on. With the Garmin, I leave them on. This may have a lot to do
with the Garmin being color.

Finally, the backlight. The 1000 screen is made to be readable in
daylight without a backlight. The Garmin uses the "other" design where a
backlight is needed all the time. The color saturation and definition is
remarkable.

Go see one at the nearest dealer. Take your 2000 with you. You may be
surprised at what is accomplished on the smaller screen.

Hey, anyone know where I can get bifocal Ray-Bans??????

Thanks,
Mike

Go see one at the nearest dealer. Take your 2000 with you. You may be
surprised at what is accomplished on the smaller screen.

I was lucky enough to borrow a friend's 396 for four hours. Although
I didn't get to fly with it, I *did* get to play extensively, and was
able to watch the weather (VERY cool) develop "live". I was also able
to compare the screen to my current GPSs.

(As you may recall, we've got the awesome AvMap EKP-III on the pilot's
yoke, and the very nice Airmap 2000c on the co-pilot's yoke. This
set-up gives us unparallelled situational awareness -- but no weather.)

The 396 falls between these two units in readability and resolution.
The AvMap simply can't be beat, with its 7-inch screen and extremely
sharp resolution. The Lowrance product is very good, but is not nearly
as sharp as the Garmin or the AvMap.

However, size really DOES matter in GPS. The ability to view your
entire route, clearly, without losing too much detail, only comes with
screen size -- and both the AvMap and the Airmap beat the Garmin hand's
down in this department.

We would have a VERY hard time going back to a screen the size of the
396 (even with my new progressive-lens glasses), but it might be worth
a step backwards in that department to achieve the undeniable safety of
having on-board weather "radar".

AvMap remains a "fringe" player in the market, despite having a
fantastic product -- so I understand their inability to spend the $$$
on acquiring weather capability. However, I am completely puzzled by
Lowrance's inaction with regards to weather depiction. With their
commanding hold on the boating market, you would *think* that they
would have a HUGE potential market for weather depiction?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

AvMap remains a "fringe" player in the market, despite having a
fantastic product -- so I understand their inability to spend the $$$
on acquiring weather capability. However, I am completely puzzled by
Lowrance's inaction with regards to weather depiction. With their
commanding hold on the boating market, you would *think* that they
would have a HUGE potential market for weather depiction?

Jay,

Does the Avmap have a USB input?

Mike

"MS" == Mike Spera writes:
MS On
MS board radar

Isn't any comparison to OBR an intellectual exercise for almost all of
us, given that our planes do not and will not have it? So for
realtime--or nearly so--weather info you have your eyes, your radio
tuned to 122.0, or the Garmin 396 (or equivalent with a PDA).

I'd love to get the 396, but the cost (both initial and ongoing) and
smallish screen deter me. Besides it's hard to justify in
N. California's Central Valley--anybody can make a reasonable
prediction of weather 10 years ahead.