AV8OR's on sale

poadeleted21

poadeleted21

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
12,332
Thought I'd pass this on, saw the AV8OR and AV8OR Ace for a very low price a week or two ago, meant to buy one but sort of forgot about it and ran out of $$, I remembered today and went looking, here's the only place I could find them still on sale for $150/$395 seems like a deal if someone needs a cheap reliable GPS.

http://www.chiefaircraft.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Av8or

I got no dog in the fight, just thought I'd pass it on.
 
bartmc said:
Thought I'd pass this on, saw the AV8OR and AV8OR Ace for a very low price a week or two ago, meant to buy one but sort of forgot about it and ran out of $$, I remembered today and went looking, here's the only place I could find them still on sale for $150/$395 seems like a deal if someone needs a cheap reliable GPS.

http://www.chiefaircraft.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Av8or

I got no dog in the fight, just thought I'd pass it on.
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I'll sell an AV8OR Horizon if anyone is dumb enough to buy a BK product...
 
Henning said:
No, even at that price it's a ripoff.
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$150 for terrain and a magenta line? Yeah, sure it's B/K and they seem hell bent on NARCOing themselves but $150 for anything airplane related can't be a rip off.
 
what is the subscription price?
 
Anyone with an Av8or Ace and some real world experience. It looks like to have functionality, you have to purchase subscriptions from Seattle Avionics (chartdata) along with the BK subscription. It seems to compete directly with Garmin's Aera 500 series. Never having used either (a Garmin 496 user), I'd like to know what others think.
 
silver-eagle said:
Anyone with an Av8or Ace and some real world experience. It looks like to have functionality, you have to purchase subscriptions from Seattle Avionics (chartdata) along with the BK subscription. It seems to compete directly with Garmin's Aera 500 series. Never having used either (a Garmin 496 user), I'd like to know what others think.
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Keep the Garmin. ;)
 
Geico266 said:
I agree. Poor customer service, inferior product, the touch screens are subject to quitting. It's a piece o crap as far as I am concerned.
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When you see that deep of a discount, it tells you one thing, 'Closeout'. They are trying to unload them, you think there will be any support in 6 months? Not a chance in hell. I had a sit down with them and they basically admitted that BK was a red headed stepchild and as soon as contractual obligations were over, they would be gone.
 
A good buddy got taken by the allure of the cheap price. It died one month after the warranty expired and they would not do a thing to help. 30 days? :nono:

I called Gamin with a used 496 that had a broken "puck" antenna. Clearly out of warranty, as it came with a plane I brokered. I just wanted to know how much a new one was, $400. :eek: They sent me a new one for free. :eek:

Garmin is the only GPS to buy in my book.

Bendix King Avi8tor is a piece of trash.
 
Henning said:
When you see that deep of a discount, it tells you one thing, 'Closeout'. They are trying to unload them, you think there will be any support in 6 months? Not a chance in hell. I had a sit down with them and they basically admitted that BK was a red headed stepchild and as soon as contractual obligations were over, they would be gone.
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Fer a buck fiddy I'm having a hard time not liking the AV8OR. Let's see I have an iPad (which sucks) and iPhone (which sucks) a 530 that doesn't have terrain data, a watch with a built in GPS, another iPhone if my wife is with me. if it goes TU, I'llhave 4 back up GPSes (think that's enough), 2 VORs and a DME. For a backup magenta line and terrain data that doesn't go dark if you forget your subscription bill, I'll take one. If it goes bad, I'll toss it in the trash, whine a little on here about B/K and go find something else. It has to be better than an iPad :).
 
I was probably one of the first people in the world th buy an AV8OR. Horrible product that wasn't ready for release. I returned it after about 2 weeks of frustration and disappointment.

It wasn't a good $600 product, and 3 years later it is a bad $150 product.
 
Put that buck fiddy towards an Aera or whatever Garmin calls the lesser version of the 796, or crack out for a 796 and be done with it.
 
I'll see for myself... Nothing but glowing reviews here

http://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/product/8881

I'll come back and say "you told me so" if I'm wrong. The peanut gallery sings the praises of an iPad. I bought one and now have an $800 Angry Birds device. That little clip board on the yoke of the Bo holds plates beautifully and works much better than the iPad for an EFB. I can't remember the last time I actually fired the iPad up in flight, it's too big, doesn't fit anywhere and in any sort of sunlight is practically useless.
 
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bartmc said:
I'll see for myself... Nothing but glowing reviews here

http://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/product/8881

I'll come back and say "you told me so" if I'm wrong. The peanut gallery sings the praises of an iPad. I bought one and now have an $800 Angry Birds device. That little clip board on the yoke of the Bo holds plates beautifully and works much better than the iPad for an EFB. I can't remember the last time I actually fired the iPad up in flight, it's too big, doesn't fit anywhere and in any sort of sunlight is practically useless.
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You have never heard me sing praises of the iPad as anything but a gaming device and Netflix viewer.... Angry Birds, Temple Run and Netflix it does well, even this (web boards) I consider it half assed and for email it's not even that. Oh well, I saved you from one bad deal, I guess I can let you blow a buck fiddy...;):D
 
Geico266 said:
I agree. Poor customer service, inferior product, the touch screens are subject to quitting. It's a piece o crap as far as I am concerned.
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Bought one a few years back at SnF for $700. Used it twice then the power button failed. Replaced under warranty. Used the new one three times before the touch screen went. BK's out of warranty answer, "buy a new one". For that $/hour of use I could have just rented a plane with a G1000.

When it worked it was a pretty decent unit. But when you can't trust it will work the next time you power it up, it's useless.
 
I have had one since it was first released, never had a problem with it and it has over 200hrs flight time.

Have the Zaon XRX bluetoothed to it for traffic

$35 once a year to update the db is a small price to pay, even have a script that creates a file of private airports from the FAA and load them everytime that data is refreshed


Yes I also have an iPad running WingX but the av8or is attached to my yoke while the iPad is on the co-pilot side.

The sale price is probably to get rid of stock before they release their new iPad app that was demoed at OSH. There was also some press release about BK going back to the days before it was purchased and the new parent company lost interest...... which is why there is Garmin today !
 
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I put 200 trouble free hours on an AV8OR as the primary means of nav in my homebuilt. Pulled it out all the time to use in the car. Just sold the homebuilt, wanted another handheld.

I have an AV8OR Ace coming from Spruce for $350.

I'm sure others had their problems with the AV8OR, I wasn't one of them. It did exactly what I needed and performed as expected for several years.

Garmin prices? No thanks. I'll see if this new ACE performs as well as my AV8OR did for the past couple years.

Tim
 
My AV8OR was a present. It works quite well, as long as aircraft supplies the power. Its battery life is 40 minutes to 1 hour. I love the UI, the symbology, and especially the clutter control. I flew with Garmin 430, 696 and Aspen about as much, and boy do Garmins suck at clutter control (well, not the 430, that thing is just dire: I never let it display anything much beyond airspace boundaries). The best part is flying over a wind farm. Aspen is much better but it's no AV8OR.

The biggest downside for me is horrible, 20th Century Java-based update system. What a bunch of CRAP, DREK, EXCREMENT. And the only reason why those jackasses did it was that they were afraid that their precious databases would end on Megaupload. Otherwise they could just send me a link to download a zipfile when I give them $35. For crying out loud the device has an SD slot!!! Just pop the card in and voila. HELL for $35 they could just mail me the blasted card!!!

We also know that companies treat long-term support as a liability, so AV8OR is going to reach the end of the line pretty soon and be history. Still, it was a valuable lesson that Garmin is not the end of everything avionic and how bigger screen is not always better (AV8OR's screen is HALF of a postcard, but do they use it well; it also helps positioning it in an airplane). AV8OR was a great accomplishment of the era of dedicated electronic devices. Now the universal device is coming to replace it.
 
I got my AV8OR for free... Won it in a BK drawing at Oshkosh the year they were introduced. My opinion:

Pro -
It's a perfect fit between the grips of my yoke. Grumman's have a pretty small yoke. A 796 is really chunky and in the way... an Ipad pretty much blocks the entire panel. The AV8OR is just right... I can hit pretty much all the functions I need on it using just my thumbs without taking my hand off the yoke.

For instance, It can display 4 data blocks at a time on the left side of the screen. You can scroll between them with a quick thumbswipe.

Flightplanning is beyond quick and easy. Before, I had a Garmin 296 handheld, and it took FOREVER to put in a FP, so I pretty much used it in "serial direct-to" mode. The AV8OR has a nice QWERTY keyboard, including victor airways using arbitrary entry/exit points... or you can enter the FP graphically using the touchscreen map.

The built in antenna works great. It comes with an external antenna as well, but I've never needed to use it. Less wires and extra bits is always better.

The terrain database is very detailed... I do a lot of mountain flying, and the terrain functions in the AV8OR are far superior to my 430W.

XM weather works fine, and is bluetooth to the receiver, so no extra wires.

Outputs the flight logs as Google Earth KML files on an SD card.

BK has supported this fairly well, adding numerous new features to the software over the years (safetaxi, weight and balance calculators, XM radio tuner)

Cons-
This was obviously never designed from the ground up as an aviation product. It's some off the shelf receiver designed by an anonymous Chinese company, that BK just pad some anonymous dudes in India to write aviation software for. It feels and looks chintzy and kludged.

The touchscreen is no iphone, that's for sure. A bit hard to see in the sun, and not as responsive as we've come to expect from modern electronics.

The yoke mount that it comes with is clunky and hard to adjust. I bolted the cradle it comes with to a standard RAM ball and use the RAM yoke mount instead, much nicer.

It's common for the DC cigarette lighter power supply to die. I replaced mine with one from the aviation aisle of Radio Shack. As noted, it has an internal battery, but it's only good for an hour or so. However, it you want to carry a spare battery, it's actually from a Nokia cell phone. Did I mention that this was obviously never designed from the ground up as an aviation product?

Summary - I would not have paid 600 for it. The Garmin Aera 500 is a superior product in that price range. However for $150 it is a steal. Although BK will most likely not be providing future updates to the OS, I expect that map updates will continue for some time, as they are sold by a separate vendor.

BK as a company, is spiralling the toilet. Their booth at OSH was laughable this year. The sum total of their strategy this year is an Ipad app to compete with Foreflight... and Wingx... and Garmin Pilot... and Skycharts... Best of luck starting 2 years late in an supersaturated market with a nearly undisputed leader guys...
 
slacktide said:
The built in antenna works great.

The terrain database is very detailed...
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Internal antenna is all I have ever had to use.. no problems

Terrain database is very details, also like the profile view at the bottom of the screen - while not in the greatest detail, it was better then nothing.
 
Scrabo said:
Internal antenna is all I have ever had to use.. no problems

Terrain database is very details, also like the profile view at the bottom of the screen - while not in the greatest detail, it was better then nothing.
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I bought it for terrain data that doesn't expire when my subscription does, the next mountain that sprouts up around here will necessitate an upgrade, but I think I can get by until that happens. When I get a spare 3-4 AMU I'll update the 530 to WAAS and get terrain on that. It's should be a nice backup to the panel powered stuff and more manageable in the cockpit than the iPad.

$150? I've bought a photocopy of a hand written 50 year old piece of paper from Piper that was twice as expensive and less useful.
 
bartmc said:
I bought it for terrain data that doesn't expire when my subscription does, the next mountain that sprouts up around here will necessitate an upgrade, but I think I can get by until that happens.
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Garmin expires their terrain data? YGBFKM.
 
denverpilot said:
Garmin expires their terrain data? YGBFKM.
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No, but when your WingX subscription expires it does or at least I thought it did. I found the iPad, from a hardware standpoint, so useless in the cockpit that I didn't bother to renew any subscriptions. The iPad software (WingX, FF, Garmin Pilot) is excellent but the iPad sucks as far as size and readability are concerned for aviation uses. I have a 530 in the panel, I don't think you get terrain unless you upgrade to a 530W. I don't own a handheld, my Aera was stolen, I replaced it with an Anywhere Map Quadra and sold that to buy an iPad. My all time worst aviation purchase to date.
 
bartmc said:
No, but when your WingX subscription expires it does or at least I thought it did. I found the iPad, from a hardware standpoint, so useless in the cockpit that I didn't bother to renew any subscriptions. The iPad software (WingX, FF, Garmin Pilot) is excellent but the iPad sucks as far as size and readability are concerned for aviation uses. I have a 530 in the panel, I don't think you get terrain unless you upgrade to a 530W. I don't own a handheld, my Aera was stolen, I replaced it with an Anywhere Map Quadra and sold that to buy an iPad. My all time worst aviation purchase to date.
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Now you've done it, you've made yourself pariah like me. You aren't allowed to say anything negative about the almighty iPad on this forum.:nono::nono::nono:
 
Henning said:
Now you've done it, you've made yourself pariah like me. You aren't allowed to say anything negative about the almighty iPad on this forum.:nono::nono::nono:
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Actually, I think most everyone who loves the iPad, has that same description about it. You have heard me say more then once, the screen sucks in direct sunlight, and I would rather have a smaller one.

If you like the thing, and it only cost you $150, great. Glad your enjoying it.
 
I paid a lot more than that for an iPad, but all in all it does ok.
 
You guys who like to complain about the iPad being "useless" in the cockpit must have had expectations so high as to be unreasonable.

When I bought my Garmin 396 years ago, the glare was so bad on Garmin's "anti-glare" screen that I had to use a screen protector to cut it down. The screen protector worked well, though it did dull the colors a bit. Without the protector, the screen washed out in direct sunlight.

The entire attraction of the iPad is that it was the first true tablet computer that could run full-blown EFB apps (with reasonable subscription costs) for hours on end for less than $1000. Ever see one of those pen-based Motion tablets with the spaghetti wires hanging off of it to keep it going for more than a couple hours? And "keep it going" assumed that Windows could hold out that long without crashing.

As navigation devices, are Garmin's portable units superior? Of course. It's much easier to hit "D" on the Garmin and be on my way than to poke text boxes and virtual keyboards on the iPad, for example. But Garmin's stuff is 3x-5x the price for comparable functionality, not including the outrageous database subscription costs, and I don't think that I could justify the huge delta in cost even if I could account for it as a business expense. The iPad apps and hardware are good enough and inexpensive enough that most folks can live with the relatively minor issues. The iPad is less of a compromise than previous non-aviation portable technology, and costs a whole lot less than the purpose-built devices, which I think pretty much explains its popularity in the aviation community.


JKG
 
Despite all the hate, and the fact that I haven't used it a bunch (or anything else but the installed gps's in the planes I fly), I like my AV8OR. It's reliable, can get you to the airport for a quick diversion, has a decent battery life with the extended battery, and functions just fine in the air. And heck, its car gps is far better than my Garmin car gps.
 
ebykowsky said:
Despite all the hate, and the fact that I haven't used it a bunch (or anything else but the installed gps's in the planes I fly), I like my AV8OR. It's reliable, can get you to the airport for a quick diversion, has a decent battery life with the extended battery, and functions just fine in the air. And heck, its car gps is far better than my Garmin car gps.
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I started this thread back in August, been using it since. I like it. It mounts nicely to the Bonanza Yoke and draws magenta lines as good as any GPS. I keep the 530 on the flight plan wired to the autopilot and use the AV8OR when I need/want to investigate something without fear of hosing up the 530.

I'd trade it for an Aera though.
 
bartmc said:
I started this thread back in August, been using it since. I like it. It mounts nicely to the Bonanza Yoke and draws magenta lines as good as any GPS. I keep the 530 on the flight plan wired to the autopilot and use the AV8OR when I need/want to investigate something without fear of hosing up the 530.

I'd trade it for an Aera though.
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If I were flying IFR, I'd probably get something better, but I really don't even need a GPS, so this does everything I need... Have you used the GPS function in your car? I like that it has terrain, so when I was driving through the mountains, it actually showed big 3d mountains on the GPS (and it gives altitude).
 
ebykowsky said:
If I were flying IFR, I'd probably get something better, but I really don't even need a GPS, so this does everything I need... Have you used the GPS function in your car? I like that it has terrain, so when I was driving through the mountains, it actually showed big 3d mountains on the GPS (and it gives altitude).
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I did when I first got it, but modern smart phones have pretty much made dedicated GPS devices in a car obselete. It's better than my iPhone, but not enough for me to haul it around, plus the iPhone has internet making places not in the database easier to find.
 
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