Garmin GPS 296 vs. 496

Need some advice. I'll be equipping my 7A for VFR flight and I don't think I want to spend $30/month for the rest of my flying career for inflight weather. The information can be had from Flight Watch 122.0 albeit not as conveniently, perhaps, but it is free. Inflight satellite music is of no interest. So, am I missing something? Why should I consider spending an additional $1300 on a 496 plus $360/year ad infinitum? Just playing devil's advocate here. Can someone talk me into spending the extra money on the 496? Is the 296 soon to be an unsupported orphan? BTW, I anticipate flying all over the USA with this thing IF I ever get it finished. Also, I may be the last aircraft owner in North America without a GPS but I have used them and I know how handy they are. I may update later to IFR if circumstaces warrant and after I have gotten use to the airplane, probably by adding an autopilot and SL30. The rest of the panel will be two big Dynons. Love the idea of having an HSI again! I really need to buy something soon because it is holding up progress. Help! and thanks.

Not to confuse the issue even more but you could just throw a Lowrance 2000C in there for $700 and move on (forget Sporty's....try www.pilotshop.com). In a couple of years when you upgrade the panel you can decide to change it out for the Garmin or just stick with what you have.

Not trying to push the 2000c, although I've been happy with my 1000 (I'm not driving an autopilot with it...just carrying it around in spam cans. Someone else can speak to driving an AP with the 2000c). Just a random thought

Garmin 296 vs. 396/496

Stephen,

I have been flying with my 296 for over 200 hours. You can see all the places around the country where I have been on my web site at www.n2prise.org. The most recent long cross-country trip was to Oshkosh 2006. We took along a 396 so my friend who owned it could play with it, checking weather, etc. My 296 was driving the autopilot, and I used it to train my friend on the common functions to all three models. The 496 adds the taxiways at many airports, but you can get those downloaded and printed as needed. The 496 also has all the streets in the USA in ROM for those times you want to use in on the ground. The older models let you plug in a RAM memory chip which can be programmed from your computer with street maps from areas of the country you choose.

On the way back from OSH, there was a line of storms from Saint Louis to a point East of Chicago. The 396 gave us the big situation on where the sigmets and precipitation were located. We flew parallel to the front on the north side of it to a fuel stop in north central Missouri (MO8), then turned for home going past STL on the far west side of town. We had a flight of four RV-s together only because of the 396 we had in my airplane watching the weather. I found myself directing traffic for two of our group around heavy rain storms when they were heading for Decatur and Huntsville, Alabama. The third member of the group got delayed in SE Missouri due to an oil leak and came by Chattanooga after the storms in our area passed by. As for me, I got home to the KCHA area about 20 minutes before the storms from Huntsville reached Chattanooga.

On that day, the 396 helped just fine. It is the only time I have had WX in the cockpit. I still fly my 296. I just finished wiring up the second serial port to my SL-30 NAV/COM and it gets the radio frequencies from the 296 just fine. I need to get the airplane out of the hangar to get real GPS signals to test the new HSI screen on my Dynon D10-A.

Jerry K. Thorne
East Ridge, TN
RV-9A N2PZ 209.4 Hobbs Hours
www.n2prise.org

After flying with the 396 for a year, I wouldn't be without it. If you don't think the weather feature is worth it, then your type of flying is sure different from mine. I've used it as much VFR as IFR. It gave me back summertime cross country flying in the afternoon, which is always a challenge here in the south. I guess I would say that there were a significant number of flights that I just would not have taken without the 396.

For example, I flew IFR from Memphis to Smyrna, TN at night. I don't do too much night IFR, but the destination had a precision approach, and the forecast was for 1200 foot ceilings and good vis. The problem was the scattered thunderstorms along the route. It would have been a no-go without the 396, because I just don't think flight watch can be precise enough to get you around the weather, and center controllers are not worth a **** when it comes to looking at weather.

I remember taking it out on the hotel balcony in Charleston last year, sitting there checking metars and forecasts, while a line of weather moved toward us. It's just nice to be able to access all this stuff whenever you want to. I still get the full briefing from flight service, but I usually know what I need to know before I call.

I just think this gizmo is the coolest thing I've ever seen!

Your mileage may vary.