Garmon 296
Am building an RV-8 which will have a GNS430 and also a 296. I've used the 296 a lot in X-C in my Lance and locally in the Pitts. This unit is so impressive I can't believe all it does. It's only legal VFR as has been pointed out in the forums. It does great flight planning, is small and light, has super battery life, and does a fair job at TAWS. We've (at least two of us) found the pseudo panel can really be flown IFR and serves as an emergency back up totally independent of the aircraft and antennae. My friend Russ, a 5000 hour Navy pilot, found the 196 not useable as a primary IFR Attitute and altitude reference. We both can fly the 296 due to its rapid update (5x/sec) while under the hood, simulating IFR. What a great defense against total failure of your electrical system - which shouldn't happen if you build it according to R. Nuckolls, but I still worry. The display is not as bright as the 195 but still good. Don't know if I'm right to feel this way, but think Lycomings are so reliable that I look elsewhere for the first failure points. Anyway plan to fly IFR with 430, SL30, GTX 330, Dynon, TruTrak, steam gauges with TC and the 296 plus hand held com (hooked to aircraft antenna) as back up. Seems WAAS upgrade will come along for the 430 and if you have room, the 480 would be outstanding. Two of us have had failure of the power cable to the 296, which comes apart in the body of the connector to the unit (from 12V plug or AC). Garmin replaced them for both of us, but did so as a "customer courtesy" as opposed to warranty. We thought this should be covered under the warranty at less than one year of service. Our avionics guy said we could use the 296 to drive our autopilot, but it hasn't been done yet. It doesn't interface with your fuel flow to calculate endurance and fuel remain at next waypoint, at least ours hasn't. Bill