The New Lap Mount for the Garmin 695/696

Bob Axsom · #1 01-07-2009, 02:59 PM

I received mine a couple of hours ago from Aircraft Spruce. It has been on back order for a coupe of months. You may be waiting for one or thinking of buying on of these $50 gems. I posted the photos to show what it looks like along with the RAM mount supplied free with the 695 that I bought. I'm in my 25th year of instrument flying and I have some habits that are not going to work with the lap mount very well. All revisions to my clearance etc. are written down on a knee board on my right leg. This will require that I strap the GPS to my left leg. I learned to fly with my left hand, I learned to write with my right hand and there is a stick between my legs tha obstructs reaching across from right to left. I'm thinking I will look very seriously into grinding of part of the bottom of the RAM mount and revise it to mount to the structure between the reats as I now have my GPS 90 mounted. Fuel switching gets a little awkward but I think that configuration will be more compatible with my instrument flying.

Bob Axsom

Ironflight · #2 01-07-2009, 05:43 PM

Thanks for posting the pictures Bob - I was wondering what the leg mount was going to look like. It looks pretty much like I thought! As I've posted before, I have used the 696 on it's RAM mount over on the right side of my -8's cockpit for some months now. In essence, it is "hovering" over my right leg, as if it was on my thigh, but a little above. Mounting it on the left would put it in the way of the engine controls, so I took the drastic step of moving my knee board to my left leg, and have been training myself to like it that way. 35 years on the right leg - it's tough! I'm still writing with my right hand of course.....

On the trip to California in Louise's -6 last week, we put the 696 on the right side on the RAM mount, in front of the right seat. hat worked pretty well for whoever was flying on that side - it gave the non-flying pilot something to keep them occupied.

My biggest concern over the thigh mount is the cables - Power, XM, and Audio would just make things a bit messy putting it on and taking it off.

Paul