Garmin 196 GPS - what do you guys think?

I know I am a couple of models behind as far as the portables go, I would
LOVE to buy a 396 but just can't justify it right now.
I rent from a flying club where every plane has a different combination of
ADF/VOR/LORAN/GPS , and they all work differently, no manuals for the GPS or
LORAN units (if they are working at all that day) so I never know what I
will have available for VFR navigation.
SO, I thought it might be a good investment. For anyone that has owned or
used one of these, what are the opinions out there? Easy to use? Reliable?
What don't you like about it? Is the 296 worth twice the cash for VFR flight
in the Midwest (no mountains)?

--
Hello, my name is Mike, and I am an airplane addict....

As an aside, both Garmin and Bendix-King have Pilot's Manuals for most of
their units available on their websites in .pdf format. You can download
them and easily print the relevant parts.

www.garmin.com

https://www3.bendixking.com/index.jsp

Hope this helps...




"Mike W." wrote in message
...
I know I am a couple of models behind as far as the portables go, I would
LOVE to buy a 396 but just can't justify it right now.
I rent from a flying club where every plane has a different combination of
ADF/VOR/LORAN/GPS , and they all work differently, no manuals for the GPS
or
LORAN units (if they are working at all that day) so I never know what I
will have available for VFR navigation.
SO, I thought it might be a good investment. For anyone that has owned or
used one of these, what are the opinions out there? Easy to use? Reliable?
What don't you like about it? Is the 296 worth twice the cash for VFR
flight
in the Midwest (no mountains)?

--
Hello, my name is Mike, and I am an airplane addict....

Mike W. wrote:
I know I am a couple of models behind as far as the portables go, I would
LOVE to buy a 396 but just can't justify it right now.
I rent from a flying club where every plane has a different combination of
ADF/VOR/LORAN/GPS , and they all work differently, no manuals for the GPS or
LORAN units (if they are working at all that day) so I never know what I
will have available for VFR navigation.
SO, I thought it might be a good investment. For anyone that has owned or
used one of these, what are the opinions out there? Easy to use? Reliable?
What don't you like about it? Is the 296 worth twice the cash for VFR flight
in the Midwest (no mountains)?

Have you tried the AOPA website?

They have many of the manuals in pdf online for download.

I love my 196 and plan to keep it for a while. Easy to use when you get
used to it. They seem to be going for a song on Ebay these days.

Jim

"Mike W."wrote:

LOVE to buy a 396 but just can't justify it right now.

Is the 296 worth twice the cash for VFR flight
in the Midwest (no mountains)?

I just bought a 396 and my like-new 296 is for sale.

Email me if you're interested.

c172rg at bellsouth dot net

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

In a previous article, "Mike W." said:
SO, I thought it might be a good investment. For anyone that has owned or
used one of these, what are the opinions out there? Easy to use? Reliable?
What don't you like about it? Is the 296 worth twice the cash for VFR flight
in the Midwest (no mountains)?

I have a 195, and it's great. I tried a 295, and it sucks. I know people
who bought 295s and went back to 195s afterwards. The 196 looked like a
great improvement over the 195, and the 296 looks like they finally got
colour right. I wish I'd gone to Oshkosh this year so I could drool on
the 396 - the only thing that would make the 396 perfect to me would be if
they'd add approach plates.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Every program has two purposes -- one for which it was written and
another for which it wasn't.

"Mike W." wrote in message
...
I know I am a couple of models behind as far as the portables go, I would
LOVE to buy a 396 but just can't justify it right now.
I rent from a flying club where every plane has a different combination of
ADF/VOR/LORAN/GPS , and they all work differently, no manuals for the GPS
or
LORAN units (if they are working at all that day) so I never know what I
will have available for VFR navigation.
SO, I thought it might be a good investment. For anyone that has owned or
used one of these, what are the opinions out there? Easy to use? Reliable?
What don't you like about it? Is the 296 worth twice the cash for VFR
flight
in the Midwest (no mountains)?


I bought one this summer off Ebay for around $500 used. I also fly at an
aero club and use it for VFR flying. It rocks. I would recommend one to
anyone. Make sure the database is updated before you buy a used one.

I would not pay more for the 296. If you're VFR, you shouldn't need a
handheld GPS to tell you where the rocks are. If you want to use it as an
IFR backup in the mountians, that's a different story. I might consider it
then. But I don't fly much in the mountains. I wish they offered the w/x
downlink into the 196, then it'd be a perfect machine. I would pay extra to
have the w/x overlayed ontop of my gps map, but that will be my next
purchase in a couple of years when the price comes down.

"Paul Tomblin" wrote:
I have a 195, and it's great. I tried a 295, and it sucks.

!!!!!!!

That blows my mind!

I hated my 195, loved my 295.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

196 is a great GPS - perfect for over 90% of VFR pilots.
If you fly lots of new mountains/night the terrain avoidance of the 296
would be great.
If you fly in lots of crappy weather, often enough to make paying a
monthly download fee sensible, the 396 is great.
So how do you fly?
196 is enough for most - not all.

HTH

Tony
Garmin 196

--

Tony Roberts
PP-ASEL
VFR OTT
Night
Cessna 172H C-GICE

I bought a new 196 about 9 months ago and have flown with it for 95 hours of
VFR day, night, mountain flying. I works great! I don't regret getting the
less expensive unit at all. Visibility is great in sun, instrument red, or
internal illumination. I love uploading my track log to a topo map program
and reliving my flight. It also works fine for use in the car.

tom



"Mike W." wrote in message
...
I know I am a couple of models behind as far as the portables go, I would
LOVE to buy a 396 but just can't justify it right now.
I rent from a flying club where every plane has a different combination of
ADF/VOR/LORAN/GPS , and they all work differently, no manuals for the GPS
or
LORAN units (if they are working at all that day) so I never know what I
will have available for VFR navigation.
SO, I thought it might be a good investment. For anyone that has owned or
used one of these, what are the opinions out there? Easy to use? Reliable?
What don't you like about it? Is the 296 worth twice the cash for VFR
flight
in the Midwest (no mountains)?

--
Hello, my name is Mike, and I am an airplane addict....