sshekels
Pre-takeoff checklist
Well, After a near nervous breakdown, I now own a 396. Initial thoughts:
Very cool
Bummer the XM is separate
Details:
I went to OSH on Monday by 11AM, and ran to Spruce with my kids in tail. After waiting a bit I asked if they had the 396. "Nope, sold them all in 1 hour. Everyone else did too. Garmin only had a few for the OSH vendors..."
EEK! I searched a bit and after 5-6 more places told me the same, I found one spot that had 2 left. SCORE! I grabbed one, very much lighter in the wallet, and ran!
While having a burger with the kids, I activated the XM WX - Took about 10 minutes and a few more $$$.
That night I had the chance to play with it at a friend’s house while some bad WX come through MSP and OSH. Cool stuff! Since the weather was getting bad, I decided to stay the night and return to MSP on Tuesday, all the time watching it on the GPS!
Tuesday AM brought marginal VFR, but it was nice to have the live weather in the cockpit of my 172 during the flight! Since I already had my 296 all set, the 396 was a drop in replacement for the mount, with the addition of running the XM antenna up to the dash.
It acquires WX in anywhere from 1-2 minutes to 12 minutes depending on the type of information. (some is broadcast less frequently). Interestingly enough a good XM signal does NOT equate to good WX reception. While I had no issue in the aircraft, I did find that in the house it would say it had a 2-3 bar XM signal but I was not getting WX updates. Moving the antenna a bit seemed to cure the issue. I wonder if the WX is only sent from one of the sats or what? Odd..
Some new features that have been introduced are pretty nice:
When hitting the “nearest” button, it shows a WX tab that lists the METAR and shows VFR / MVFR / IFR / LIFR.’
One of the status pages lists WX altimeter and WX Wind from the nearest airport. Nice feature!
They also have added a traffic flow diagram to the runway layout screen for airports that shows the traffic pattern direction. Nice addition.
One can animate the weather on the screen to get a feel for its movement.
Selecting an airport and pressing enter on the screen allows one to see the TAF for that location. (It picks the nearest TAF to report – cool!)
Items that I don’t especially like:
The XM “antenna” is actually the ENTIRE XM receiver. The XM radio ID is in fact in the “antenna.” Drag – It would be nice if it was in the GPS, so one could leave the XM antenna in the aircraft, and have an extra for traveling. I can only imagine the cost of replacing it, much less the fact that the radio ID is in it, so multiple antennas equals multiple subscriptions.
Weather data is lost completely after a power down, even it is for a second. It would be nice if it “aged” the data and had _something_ if you had to restart it. Currently you must wait for it to reacquire the data. (anywhere from 2 – 12 minutes)
Once I find my jewelers screwdrivers, I plan to open the antenna and explore its insides. I’m also curious, since it is a USB device, what a PC would make of it. It sure would be nice if Garmin released drivers for it so I could get the XM WX into my flight planning software!
On an aside, the GPS receiver seems to be more sensitive than the 296. I have had no difficulty in getting a 2D or even a 3D fix inside several homes that I have been in.
All in all – VERY nice….
Scott
Very cool
Bummer the XM is separate
Details:
I went to OSH on Monday by 11AM, and ran to Spruce with my kids in tail. After waiting a bit I asked if they had the 396. "Nope, sold them all in 1 hour. Everyone else did too. Garmin only had a few for the OSH vendors..."
EEK! I searched a bit and after 5-6 more places told me the same, I found one spot that had 2 left. SCORE! I grabbed one, very much lighter in the wallet, and ran!
While having a burger with the kids, I activated the XM WX - Took about 10 minutes and a few more $$$.
That night I had the chance to play with it at a friend’s house while some bad WX come through MSP and OSH. Cool stuff! Since the weather was getting bad, I decided to stay the night and return to MSP on Tuesday, all the time watching it on the GPS!
Tuesday AM brought marginal VFR, but it was nice to have the live weather in the cockpit of my 172 during the flight! Since I already had my 296 all set, the 396 was a drop in replacement for the mount, with the addition of running the XM antenna up to the dash.
It acquires WX in anywhere from 1-2 minutes to 12 minutes depending on the type of information. (some is broadcast less frequently). Interestingly enough a good XM signal does NOT equate to good WX reception. While I had no issue in the aircraft, I did find that in the house it would say it had a 2-3 bar XM signal but I was not getting WX updates. Moving the antenna a bit seemed to cure the issue. I wonder if the WX is only sent from one of the sats or what? Odd..
Some new features that have been introduced are pretty nice:
When hitting the “nearest” button, it shows a WX tab that lists the METAR and shows VFR / MVFR / IFR / LIFR.’
One of the status pages lists WX altimeter and WX Wind from the nearest airport. Nice feature!
They also have added a traffic flow diagram to the runway layout screen for airports that shows the traffic pattern direction. Nice addition.
One can animate the weather on the screen to get a feel for its movement.
Selecting an airport and pressing enter on the screen allows one to see the TAF for that location. (It picks the nearest TAF to report – cool!)
Items that I don’t especially like:
The XM “antenna” is actually the ENTIRE XM receiver. The XM radio ID is in fact in the “antenna.” Drag – It would be nice if it was in the GPS, so one could leave the XM antenna in the aircraft, and have an extra for traveling. I can only imagine the cost of replacing it, much less the fact that the radio ID is in it, so multiple antennas equals multiple subscriptions.
Weather data is lost completely after a power down, even it is for a second. It would be nice if it “aged” the data and had _something_ if you had to restart it. Currently you must wait for it to reacquire the data. (anywhere from 2 – 12 minutes)
Once I find my jewelers screwdrivers, I plan to open the antenna and explore its insides. I’m also curious, since it is a USB device, what a PC would make of it. It sure would be nice if Garmin released drivers for it so I could get the XM WX into my flight planning software!
On an aside, the GPS receiver seems to be more sensitive than the 296. I have had no difficulty in getting a 2D or even a 3D fix inside several homes that I have been in.
All in all – VERY nice….
Scott
