Any opinions on the new Garmin touch screen portables?

Fearless Tower

Fearless Tower

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Fearless Tower
Okay, my 296 is dying it seems and I was thinking about upgrading to a 396/496.....but apparently all of the old style X96 Garmins have been discounted with the release of the 500 series touch screen GPS units. Seems like Garmin even went so far as to pull the unsold stock back - none of the big online pilot shops have them in stock now....appear that the only way to get one is to by used.

So, has anyone tried the new 500 series? Any thoughts?

Looks like the price on the new ones is pretty good compared to the X96 units, but I'm concerned about the usability of the small touch screen when I am bouncing around in my 170. How easy/hard is it to type in a waypoint/fix in the air?
 
Maybe they're getting better but I'd trust a dedicated GPS over a consumer computer. I've seen computers fail too many times at a critical point (navigating or doing something with lab equipment).
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Maybe they're getting better but I'd trust a dedicated GPS over a consumer computer. I've seen computers fail too many times at a critical point (navigating or doing something with lab equipment).
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At this stage, for what I'd use it for, I'd go Foreflight & an iPad. At least I would once XM weather/WxWorx is available.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Maybe they're getting better but I'd trust a dedicated GPS over a consumer computer. I've seen computers fail too many times at a critical point (navigating or doing something with lab equipment).
Click to expand...

I agree. By the time you add the XM box, etc. you're adding points of failure (the box itself, the bluetooth connection), plus the hassle of power cords, etc.
 
If iPad and Foreflight/Skycharts/whatever ever get XM weather, that's the way to go. We love the iPad and Skycharts in the plane.

Until then, I'd buy a used 496 on Ebay. I've got a 496 and despise it as a GPS (and have since Day One with it), but it's still the only way to go if you want weather on board.

On the other hand, you never know if Garmin will pull a Lowrance on us, and suddenly withdraw service on those older units -- so perhaps the new 500 series is best.

I, too, have my doubts about using an itty-bitty touch screen in turbulence, though. I have a touch-screen Garmin in one of my cars, and have enough trouble with that while driving on a smooth road -- I can't imagine trying to program it while bouncing around.
 
I have used an Aera 500 series Garmin touchscreen GPS on a few occasions. It was great for having XM Nexrad up on the screen but didn't really use it for anything else. We have a GNS530 and my iPad in the plane so I just borrowed the Aera for the trip to the Wings FlyBQ and back because I knew there were some storms brewing for the afternoon.

It's a great unit and I found the touchscreen actually very nice. Responsive but not overly so, which works well in turbulence. Having used both the Aera and an iPad, I'd spend the money on an iPad with ForeFlight but I suppose I'm a bit biased. I can do all sorts of neat stuff with my iPad that I didn't imagine I would be doing before I bought it. I purchased the device thinking I'd use it 95% of the time in the airplane and 5% outside. The exact reverse of that statement is the truth. I use it in the airplane but 95% of its use is personal, outside of the plane, on the ground.

I believe it really depends on your mission and what equipment you're flying with. Do you already use GPS for navigation? Weather?
 
I just started using an Aera, and I like it. A bit different than a 496 but still does the same basic thing. I didn't have a choice in buying it, as it's what the company went with, but I think I would pick it over an older model. Just realize if you aren't good with a touch screen phone, you probably won't do well with the touch screen GPS.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
Just realize if you aren't good with a touch screen phone, you probably won't do well with the touch screen GPS.
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That is one of my biggest concerns....I HATE touch screen phones....I love my IPOD touch...as long as I don't have to type anything.

Navigating the different pages on the Aera doesn't seem like a problem , but how do you input the waypoint/fix?

ACS has an online video showing the features of the Aera, but it wasn't clear how to actually type in a fix. In other words, if I wanted to go direct to a fix, how would I enter it on the touch screen?
 
I went to the Garmin seminar for the new units and got to demo it as well as see the unit installed in the factory reps' Mooney. I didn't get to use it in flight, but I was pretty impressed.

Ryan
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
Off the top of my head I think you press HOME then D-->
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Got that, but once you hit D->, how do you actually type in the fix? On the X96, you cycle through the alphabet with the arrow keys.....on the 430/530, you use turn the knob. How does it work on the Aera?
 
RyanShort1 said:
I went to the Garmin seminar for the new units and got to demo it as well as see the unit installed in the factory reps' Mooney. I didn't get to use it in flight, but I was pretty impressed.
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Are you talking about the new GTN650/750? I think the OP was just talking about the Aera handhelds.
 
Ron Levy has an Aera 510, speaks very highly of it. The touchscreens are set up pretty well for bumpy air use.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Navigating the different pages on the Aera doesn't seem like a problem , but how do you input the waypoint/fix?
Click to expand...

I use the keyboard to type it in, which is a pain. Even on my Droid phone, I use the "old fashion" button keyboard over the touch screen one. Personally, I wish it had a keypad that you could attach to the Area series, but you know what that would cost.
 
I've been using the IFly 700 from Adventure Pilot. Its a 7" touchscreen and while turbulence can create some unplanned waypoints its pretty easy to work with. I also hate touchscreen phones and thought long and hard before buying this GPS but I've been very pleasantly surprised. I've got a Garmin 196 in the plane as well but I don't even turn it on anymore. The tiny non-color screen is hard to see and a pain to use. It does have ground (street) and marine modes but I never use them. The IFly is supposed to have ads-b connectivity soon as well so maybe non-subscription weather will be here. When setting up or changing flight plans you use an on-screen keyboard so its easier then flipping switches or turning knobs and tapping.....

I'm strictly VFR so I don't know about the approach plates and all that but they're there. For the cost its been the best I've seen and better than many at much higher prices. Worth looking at...

Frank
 
I picked up an aera 510.

I thought I saw occational signal drop outs flying it in the yoke mount in a 172 without the antenna so I also picked up a remote (suction cup) GPS antenna to ensure I get good reception.

I rent, I wanted something I could count on (tired of old junk). Flying today, I never had to look at it once, but it was there if I needed it.

Touch screen works great. Nice to just key in the direct to dest, vs all the knob turning from the old KLN 84 (that never gets updated).

I didn't select the Ipad because it does not have a built in GPS reciever.

I didn't really see where I'd fit an IPAD if I rented a 150.

I also liked the idea that the aera supported XM radio, if I want to activate the subscription.

It will apparently display TIS if you have a compatible Garmin reciever.

I like the fact the aera has updatable nav, terrain and obstacle databases.

With the power plug, the GPS antenna and XM radio antenna, there are wires everywhere. I haven't figured a neat way of managing the wire mess.

I always make sure the power connector is unplugged for starting and stopping the engine too.
 
kontiki said:
I didn't select the Ipad because it does not have a built in GPS reciever.
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Hmm. I guess that's surprising to me, since I flew with mine today using the built in GPS receiver.
 
FYI:

Quote:
'I didn't select the Ipad because it does not have a built in GPS reciever.'

It does...and you can install an external GPS as well on the Ipad

'It will apparently display TIS if you have a compatible Garmin reciever.'

It does not...If the 510 mount connector is hardwired into your panel for power and is linked to your panel GPS you can show flight plans and map overlays of routing on the 510, but traffic does not appear on the 510 in the same way it does on the panel GPS.
 
Jason,

Thanks for the clarification. Maybe it was the built in WAAS support that I was thinking of. I remember not selecting it because it was missing something along those lines. I just went through the marketing literature and did a rough comparitive analysis. Good accurate GPS was something I felt was necessary.

DutchessFlier,

My comments on the aera TIS overlay come from the owners manual. They show that it has the capacity, but it wasn't obvious to me how to set it up. Originally, I thought it might come from XM, but when I went back and checked, I didn't see it offered on the XM site. Still the manuals shows it, I believe you need a Garmin reciever of some sort and maybe a patch cable, or something. I haven't spent time trying to get TIS to work on anything yet.
 
FWIW, I laid my plastic down today and bough the 510. Got to play around with it in the shop and it does seem to be a definite step up from the X96 series. The touch screen makes things like scrolling the map alot easier and the QWERT touch keypad actually looks like it will make entering fixes alot quicker....we'll see how it does in turbulence, but overall I like it.

Does anyone have experience with the XM subscription?

The guy at Marv Golden's told me that once I pay the initial activation fee, I can turn the subscription on/off whenever I want without having to pay the setup fee everytime. Sounded like it could be a good deal since there are alot of months where all I do is fly around the pattern and other months where I'm doing more x-country stuff.
 
Fearless Tower said:
FWIW, I laid my plastic down today and bough the 510. Got to play around with it in the shop and it does seem to be a definite step up from the X96 series. The touch screen makes things like scrolling the map alot easier and the QWERT touch keypad actually looks like it will make entering fixes alot quicker....we'll see how it does in turbulence, but overall I like it.

Does anyone have experience with the XM subscription?

The guy at Marv Golden's told me that once I pay the initial activation fee, I can turn the subscription on/off whenever I want without having to pay the setup fee everytime. Sounded like it could be a good deal since there are alot of months where all I do is fly around the pattern and other months where I'm doing more x-country stuff.
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That's what we've been told too, except I believe that you only get one "downgrade" period per year. We've wasted a lot of money because we've never downgraded. BTW, if you purchased your equipment at AirVenture they'll generally waive the XM setup fee.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Does anyone have experience with the XM subscription?

The guy at Marv Golden's told me that once I pay the initial activation fee, I can turn the subscription on/off whenever I want without having to pay the setup fee everytime. Sounded like it could be a good deal since there are alot of months where all I do is fly around the pattern and other months where I'm doing more x-country stuff.
Click to expand...
The XM subscription is NOT like a magazine subscription where you can let it expire. You do have to call them.

when they raised XM radio prices, I thought I would let mine expire...but they sent a collection agency after me. I'm not blaming them, except the way XM handled it, but rather giving a heads-up.
 
If you want the content of Aviator Pro, subscribe to Master Mariner, instead. It costs $5.00/month less, and includes all of the Aviator Pro content, as well as the boat stuff.
 
Does anyone know if it is possible to build your flight plan on the PC and load it to the 510, or is building the flightplan in the unit the only way?

The guy at the pilot shop thought that Garmin's Waypoint Manager software would do it, but looking the description on the Garmin site, I have my doubts.
 
I have an Aera 510. I haven't signed up for the weather thing yet, probably do it soon, maybe.

The only thing I am having trouble with so far is in trying to update the darn thing. When you purchase the unit, they give you a free update, but now my Americas Aviation Data 2010 has expired, along with the U.S. Obstacles 1081.

I have the instructions for the free update, which I have used, but I can not find anything, anywhere, on how to update the unit now that I have to pay.

I have poured through the manual, spent over an hour picking my way through their website, nothing. I did find and use a free update on the whole package, but for the life of me, there seems to be no way to update the above data bases.

Other than that, it is incredibly easy to use while in flight, even when it's bumpy. But my data bases are obsolete. I guess the next step, if I ever get the time, will be to call them or take it back to the dealer.

They have obviously put a lot of thought into the unit, but gave little or no thought on how their customers can purchase updates.

It's probably just a simple case of geeks screwing with computer illiterates, I don't know.

Before I would ever purchase another one, which I had been thinking of doing, one for each yoke, I would ask the salesman to provide written instructions on exactly how to update the unit.

John
 
This morning I had a brilliant idea, I simply e-mailed my above post to Garmin. Perhaps they will e-mail me understandable instructions on how to update the darn thing........or not.

I know each and every one of you will be quivering with anticipation wanting to know what happened, so I will let you know when and if I hear from them.

John
 
I just now received this from Garmin. I have to get ready for work now, so I will try to decipher it tonight.

John


Oops, I had to delete it, I didn't see the below admonitions.

This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential material for the sole use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, please be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of this e-mail or any attachment is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please contact the sender and delete all copies.

Thank you for your cooperation.
 
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John Baker said:
They have obviously put a lot of thought into the unit, but gave little or no thought on how their customers can purchase updates.

It's probably just a simple case of geeks screwing with computer illiterates, I don't know.

Before I would ever purchase another one, which I had been thinking of doing, one for each yoke, I would ask the salesman to provide written instructions on exactly how to update the unit.

John
Click to expand...

It's not geeks screwing with luddites at all. It's more about the mechanisms they feel they need to put in place to protect intellectual property & prevent duplicating of the data. In some cases that has been made very complex as the databases are expensive.
 
Ok, so next question - anyone know where I can get an XMradio window sticker?

I'm thinking of putting one on my 170.....I'm feeling a little frisky.
 
You made the right choice. I have both the ipad and the Aera 510. the ipad doesn't always work, is less accurate, and sometimes turns off it gets too hot. I bought the minimum weather package for $34 a month, then added the radio for a total of $49 a month. I hook the sound up to my bose a20 head set, and i can have the com radio "block" the music, or have the music get quiet during communications. The cool feature is that when you are descending to land, you get the lady's voice saying "five hundred" as you get close to the ground. Terrain warnings are also vocal. For a long vfr cross country flights where the forecast isn't always "spot on", the weather option makes the flight sooo much safer. The touch screen works fantastic. once you set your destination - which I always do on the ground - you aren't touching the screen enough to have bumps be an issue. I put mine on the dash because i hate yoke mounts, but you need to keep it away from the compass because there are magnets in the unit. Once you learn all it's features, you will love it.
 
DutchessFlier said:
It does not...If the 510 mount connector is hardwired into your panel for power and is linked to your panel GPS you can show flight plans and map overlays of routing on the 510, but traffic does not appear on the 510 in the same way it does on the panel GPS.
Click to expand...

This is not correct.

The 510 will indeed show traffic if you have a Garmin GTX-330 xpdr installed. The Aera is designed to interface with the 330 and will display TIS.

Now the question is....do I really want to spend the $3500 plus install cost on a new xpdr, when I just had my NARCO repaired......hmmmmm.

Also, FWIW - if you have an XRX PCAS, there is a cable you can buy that will allow the XRX traffic to be displayed on the Aera.
 
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Well, I received a reply from Garmin, they announced that they had solved my problem. They then went on to splain to me just how to go about updating my two expired data bases. It was fairly easy, I did it with my first try. One was around $45.00 for the Americas 2010, then the obstacles 1081 was around $150.00.

I could only afford to do the $45.00 dollar one today, since I just mailed off all my bills this afternoon. Being a custom picture framer in todays Democrat and Republican led economy, makes extra cash a rarity.

I think rather than doing the obstacles when I get the money, I will instead sign up for the weather add on.

The last data base is set to expire later this month. I have no clue what they will want to update that one. This GPS stuff is not cheap. It's starting to make me appreciate my VOR capabilities and the good ol paper charts a whole lot more.

John
 
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