Garmin 596?

A new Garmin to debut at OSH? Somebody told me that the 596 will debut at OSH and will be a 496 with Victor Airways added. He also told me that it will be a software upgrade that 496 users can add if they wish to donate money to Garmin. I found this out hours after purchasing the 496! Isn't that always the way it goes? Oh well, I still can't wait for the new 496 to arrive.

It's always interesting to see if the new products resemble the rumors about them that beat them to the market.

Best,

Hopefully a price drop

As new generations of products are introduced sometimes there is a slight price reduction in the older models.

It would be nice to see a price drop in the 396/496 product line.

Wishful thinking?

Paul

I'm holding out for the Garmin 996.... it will include telepathic mapping, warp drive navigation, and a flux capacitor.

I'm waiting for the x96 that has the screen real estate like that of the AvMap pro. I shared this thought with the guy at the Garmin booth at SNF...he didn't seem to care.

Speaking of Avmap, I've heard rumors that both they and Lowrance will be coming out with their XM WX versions. Anybody else have any news on this? I'll be at Oshkosh ready to buy either one if they do. Avmap IV with WX for, say, $500 more than the current Avmap (around $1500) would be a Garmin killer for sure.

GPS

I agree the AVMAP with weather would be a killer! I have an old AVMAP IIIC and I love the big screen - so much nicer that the Garmin. I am seriiously thinking of upgrading to the IV pro and with XM Wx that would be the tippin point!

AvMap

I have an AvMap IV and have been talking with them in the past week about an update. They say WX should be available by Osh. They need only to finalize the connection arrangement. AvMap is serial where (I understand) most others are USB. I see where Garmin is adding Victor airways to their database, catching up with AvMap on that front. Not that that is as important as WX.

Bob Kelly

Garmin 396...and other ramblings about a G1000 T182

I bought a 396 last year at OSH because they dropped the price drastically with the intro of the 496, so maybe they will drop the price of the 496 when the 596 comes out. Makes sense to me...

Now for the real reason I posted this note...

A friend let me fly right seat in his new 2007 Turbo 182 Saturday. It has the G1000 twin displays with the Garmin autopilot and a whole bunch of other bells and whistles. Just for fun he demonstrated in VMC a GPS WAAS approach into DCU with the autopilot in control. WOW! It was amazing. All he had to do was adjust power to control his airspeed, but it did all the rest, even flying the "glideslope" down to decision height of 250 ft AGL. If we needed to do a missed approach, just a punch or two of some buttons and back up we go.

I was intimidated by all the information on the two screens as well as by all the buttons. I was also fascinated by the several ways the autopilot tells you ahead of time what it's going to do! Pretty spiffy! It's no wonder Cessna requires a few days of "schooling" on the G1000 for new buyers at their Kansas facility.

On the negative side, it took about 10 minutes after engine start to go through all the checklists before we could begin our takeoff roll. It didn't take quite as long on our second startup. Even though we had a short hop over to Moontown for lunch and back, I could see how this T182 would be a fine cross-country machine. It has oxygen and he flight plans for 155 knots.

What dawned on me Saturday is that there are a lot of us who are choosing avionics for our RV's who will never use all the functionality we are buying. Did you see the description of the avionics in Van's personal RV-10? It was in the RVator I received last week. IIRC, he installed an AFS-3500 with AOA, a 396, a Garmin Transponder, an ICOM radio, a Digiflite II autopilot, a PS Engineering intercom and that's it! Empty weight is just 1590 lbs. which for an RV-10 sounds pretty light. I'm getting ready to get back on the empennage and also order my wings, so who knows what avionics will be available by the time I'm ready, but I am looking forward to being at that point.

Don

I heard....

I heard from a quite reliable source that the 596 will include a comm radio. I guess we'll know in a few weeks.

I have about 10 hours on my 496 now. I installed one to augment the 430. I love it. I haven't had much chance to test the weather since everything in AZ is clear. On a flight this weekend the marine layer on the coast was very visible and I could see my destination airport was some distance from the layer.

zip ties

RV7Guy said:

I heard from a quite reliable source that the 596 will include a comm radio. I guess we'll know in a few weeks.

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Geez I hope they include plenty of zip ties if what you say is true How many wires will that make?

I LOVE my 496.....

Reminds me..

Scott Will said:

I'm wondering how they can stick a COMM in the same form factor?? And imagine the sport pilot users if the COMM rumor is true. Almost an all in one solution. (Then comes the debate about backups...) Who knows maybe one day it will be all in one with transponder and all.

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Reminds of days past in the in the RC world when a couple of manufacturers had the receiver and servos in one package!!!

Best Package

I'd love to see the X-96 with a Mode S xponder.. a Nav/Comm with output to a KI- indicator, and an input for a FLIR camera on a split screen... whoopie! all in one! I'd also like to see everything you get in the electronic flight bags as well...
Best
Brian
One day they will build an all in one unit.... snap in and go!

brianwallis said:

I'd love to see the X-96 with a Mode S xponder.. a Nav/Comm with output to a KI- indicator, and an input for a FLIR camera on a split screen... whoopie! all in one! I'd also like to see everything you get in the electronic flight bags as well...
Best
Brian
One day they will build an all in one unit.... snap in and go!

Click to expand...

Those features will be included in the 996 - along with the flux capacitor. Unfortunately, it won't have room for any navigation software and the battery will be bigger than the 1000 page manual.
However, the 1096 will include a DVD player so you can watch a DVD to learn how to use it... if you can figure out how to turn it on.