Garmin 296 crashes

P

PoAdeleted5

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Glad this happened on my living room couch instead of the plane. I've not had any problems with my 296. I was poking around on the couch, selected marine mode, switched to the map and it immediately powered off. Found a few other places and ways to get it to crash hard like that. Latest firmware (3.20) and current database. The base map and obstacle maps are what it shipped with back in August.

I'm glad that I believe in redundancy in the air. Sure would hate to have the screen go blank in the air and not have the KNS80 dialed in and a sectional open.
 
I have the new 96C handheld, going to the message menu revials a page full of nonsense characters and it then locks up. The only way out is to power off.
 
Hmm, I have a 296 with 3.2 and can't get it to crash. Does yours do it EVERY time?

On another note, have you played with ximage? How cool is that???!?! I replaced the splash screen of my 296 with a picture of my plane! VERY COOL!
 
I have a Lowrance Globemap 100. It's the cheapo ground bound version of the Airmap 100, with no aviation database. I have to enter my own waypoints, airports, vors, etc., but other than that same beast for what at the time was a fraction of the price. We paid less than $200 for it at Wal-mart at a time when the Airmap 100 was going for $400-$500.

In all the time I've owned it, it's never crashed :)
 
Good examples of why the FAA doesn't permit handhelds to be used for IFR operations -- they haven't been through the same certification and testing as the IFR-approved panel-mounts, and if they had, they'd cost $4000 and up.
 
There have been a lot of reports of bugs and crashed with the 296 on the Piper list.

My 295 had lockup problems for the first year or two of firmware updates.

Ask Garmin how much they're paying you to be a software tester.
 
I've had a Garmin 90 since Hector was a pup and it's never crashed...I guess that's like comparing DOS 2.1 with Windoze 6.0 ... code bloat, er, I mean "features" and complexity open more room for bugs. Ah, progress!
 
Never had a problem with my 196.
I don't upload beta software into my GPS (or anything where it would matter if it crashed).
 
Steve said:
Not sure I understand their logic to call it a VFR only unit and then include approaches (sans the IAF). I get a feeling of wink wink nod nod say no more.
Click to expand...

Yes, and it will give you vectors to the FAF.
 
Steve said:
Not sure I understand their logic to call it a VFR only unit and then include approaches (sans the IAF). I get a feeling of wink wink nod nod say no more.
Click to expand...
Well, I have shot GPS and pseudo-localizer approaches under a hood in my Citabria using only my 10-year-old Apollo Precedus and the PC Flightsystems portable electronic attitude indicator just to see if I could do it in the case of inadvertent VFR into IMC. (And it actually worked fairly well.)

When the chips are down, "advisory" is better than nothing, though there are probably some cowboys out there who fly illegal approaches with them, including, allegedly, Jessica Dubroff's "instructor."
 
first thing I thought when I read the thread title was "did it file a flight plan?"
 
The little Garmin Pilot III has never crashed in 5 years... knock on wood...

larrysb said:
Glad this happened on my living room couch instead of the plane. I've not had any problems with my 296. I was poking around on the couch, selected marine mode, switched to the map and it immediately powered off. Found a few other places and ways to get it to crash hard like that. Latest firmware (3.20) and current database. The base map and obstacle maps are what it shipped with back in August.

I'm glad that I believe in redundancy in the air. Sure would hate to have the screen go blank in the air and not have the KNS80 dialed in and a sectional open.
Click to expand...
 
My 196 will on rare occasion turn itself off if I jiggle the antenna...anyone else have this problem?
 
Did a hard reset and the problem seemed to go away. Never had a problem with it before and I'm running the latest firmware ( 3.20 ). Not sure what could have happened to it. All I've done is fly it.

In any case, it pays NOT to trust ANY brand of these things completely.
 
As a computer person, I don't belive I would trust my life with ANY GPS, panel mounted or not. I know the VFR ones are expected to perform at a lesser level, however I can't see how ANYONE can say a panel mount GPS will have 100% uptime without crashes or failure.

Anyone who believes so is deceiving themselves.
 
sshekels said:
As a computer person, I don't belive I would trust my life with ANY GPS, panel mounted or not. I know the VFR ones are expected to perform at a lesser level, however I can't see how ANYONE can say a panel mount GPS will have 100% uptime without crashes or failure.
Click to expand...

Perhaps not 100%, but the FAA is pretty well satisfied that with RAIM and a bit of situational awareness, it's reliable to less than 1 critical failure in 10 to the 8th flight hours (for you non-science/engineering types, that's one in 100,000,000 flight hours). And they're not that easy to satisfy on issues like this. I'm not sure we're ready to turn off the VOR's, but GPS is awfully reliable, and more accurate than any other nav system we've got.
 
Ron,

It has the theoretical potential as a technology to be awfully reliable.

However, the implementation leaves much to be desired. I work in the computer industry, no way I'd completely trust software with my life without some kind of back up.
 
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