Another Garmin 496 post

[Bryan Wood]

The more tinkering and learning about the XM weather function on the 496 the neater it gets. Last night there was a small storm coming our way so the Garmin was plugged into the wall for power and the antenna's placed in the window behind my chair. While the bride and I watched a movie the storm made its way to us from the south. When the movie started there was rain showing about 35 miles south of us in the Hollister area. In the next 90 minutes or so the green and yellow worked it's way towards us on the screen until the edge of the rain was showing to just be reaching our house. As the movie ended I went out front and watched as the light rain slowly took over the skies over our neighborhood. What an amazing creation these folks have come up with. While playing with the crazy thing I learned that if the curser is scrolled over a storm area on the screen the intensity of the return from the radar is displayed. A quick google search showed that the size of the water drops is what is being displayed so as the storm passed and the colors and intensity displayed was something to check outside and on the Garmin to see what differing colors looked like in the sky and actual precipitation. Wow, wow, wow! Did I say that this thing is amazing?

So today it was time to go out for a ride in the plane and test this stuff out in the air. The mission was simply try to put to use some of the recent efforts to understand the information that the 496 is serving up. When I got to the airport there was a break in the weather which created a little bit of a problem. See the intent was to use the XM weather features to find a nice place to wash the plane, but at the same time staying out of anything dangerous. So a couple of minutes just sitting in the plane showed a nice green return with some darker green inside it about half way between the Panoche VOR and Lemoore NAS. This would be about a half an hour ride to get to, but there was no yellow or red showing which led me to believe it would be a safe choice to venture out and test what I think has been learned. So off we go, me and my RV into the wild blue and grey yonder in search of a plane wash. Flying straight to the rain was easy with the display being so easy to interpret. As the Garmin showed that the RV was entering the areas of light rain the first drops started hitting the windshield and then disappearing up and over the top of the canopy. As we went further the wash was having an effect and the windshield was looking very clean along with the wings and top of the cowl. Happy with the results the home identifier was plugged in and we were homeward bound in less than a minute. Another small and safe looking rain shower popped up on the screen close to home so I headed for that to and checked it out. A few minutes later a nice landing and a clean airplane put away in the hanger. What a great day to get to prove the value and integrity of the XM and get a shiny plane to boot. A quick once over with a towel to get the residual water drops here and there and the hanger door was closed by a happy pilot. This Garmin is just so cool. It was nice to finally get some weather to play with. Imagine that, playing with weather instead of just avoiding it. What a concept.

Best,

[pierre smith]

Last Friday I was spraying a coastal bermuda field for worms and watching the weather move in towards my home base, fifteen miles south. I'd been seeing heavy rain move up from the Gulf all morning so I was being alert but we've been blown out by heavy winds for several days and the farmers were crying help.

When I saw the green almost at home base, I quit and ran towards the rain and home. Didn't want to have to land and have Mrs. drive to get me (as I've done before). As I taxied up to my loading dock the raindrops started falling and we just did get the Air Tractor hangared before it burst.

Incredible piece of equipment really. Love it....It's moved back'n forth to the -6 as I need it.

[n5lp]

Originally Posted by Jeff B

...This data could be as much as 12 minutes old. One of these days, I?m going to time exactly how long it takes...

I would be VERY interested in this information.

[rv7boy]

Originally Posted by Jeff B

This data could be as much as 12 minutes old. One of these days, I?m going to time exactly how long it takes.

The time delay of the NEXRAD data is displayed at the bottom of the 396/496 screen. When you time it, tell us how accurate Garmin's display of the time delay is.

The Garmin DVD (purchased separately) describes this and lots of other useful information and should be included in the purchase price of the unit IMO.

I'm really happy with my 396 with XM Weather and XM Radio.

Don

P.S. I'm glad I don't have to haul all that equipment around in my airplane to keep up with the weather.