L

LouB

I'm New Here
Has anyone experimented with the Garmin 496/495 panel view. With the 5 time per second updating it is promising as a backup instrument if things go very wrong. How does the attitude indicator work? Is it a viable backup for a VFR equipped plane?

Thanks,
Lou
 
Wow dude, almost 3 years as a member, and you finally decide to post!!!!

Welcome, so to speak.

I have a buddy who has a panel mounted 496, works great.

As to the altitude function, it is derived from the GPS, accuracy isnt as good as a regular altimeter, but it is not subject to barometric fluctuations either.

Should be fine for VFR, as a backup, as long as you pay attention to what is going on out the window.
 
I use my virtual "6 pack" on my 196

Good for general VFR work, not so good for Touch and Go's- only Ground Speed. Good backup.
 
Lou,

I did some partial panel in real IMC using my 496 in panel view, and got out of the cloud I mistakenly got into without problems. But I am a well-trained IFR pilot, and did a lot of partial panel work during instrument training.

The 5 hertz update helps a lot, no doubts about that.

The GPS-derived attitude isn't there, it's a turn indicator really, and for partial panel it's good enough. There is no Attitude Indicator in the 496, that's why I refer to partial panel in this whole message!

Ciao, Luca
 
panel view

A friend and I , both IFR qualified, have tried the panel view in 195, 296 and 496 as sole reference for flight under the hood. The 195 was marginal and took huge effort to keep the airplane under control. The 296 and 496 were great; we found it easy to fly IFR without any other reference for 30 minutes. No undue fatigue. Our -8 has two EFIS's, each with battery backup and an ADI T&B instrument, also with battery back up. The 296 (rear seat) and 496 provide yet another level of redundancy with ample battery time to complete any reasonable flight. Now if you lose your GPS signal for any reason.......! Bill
 
I just flew last night and played briefly with this exact question in mind. IMHO it would be adequate as a backup instrument for IMC and if it came down to it I wouldn't hesitate to use it if it was my best option. That said it would not be my first option for backup attitude control (although I plan full IFR setup, VFR only plane then maybe). I plan either a double EFIS or EFIS and electric attitude indicator as my primary and backup. The 496 will be 3rd choice.

On the upside, it works well and the turn indicator updates pretty fast if you're good on instrument flying and keep turns half-standard rate or less and roll rates VERY gentle. The altimeter updates fast enough for pitch control.

Down side. As a VFR pilots backup for inadvertent IMC you may easily get out of control long before you get it to the HSI screen even though this takes but a few seconds. You lose the mapping functions/Moving Map that will be ever so useful for navigation in low vis and won't have time to program a flight plan to follow on the HSI. If you are in turbulence, which is likely enough, all bets are off as to the ability for the update and display to keep up and give useful cues. If you ever get slightly out of control I question if the update and display will be adequate to get back under control like a real attitude indicator is good for.

So all in all it's an asset and works amazingly well but with significant limitations I'm guessing. Someone needs to go out with a safty pilot and try to recover from unusual attitudes with just the HSI/attitude screen and see how it works there. Under ideal conditions it's fine. Would definitely require practice if you are going to rely on it. Also must be positioned in the panel to view easily and with little head movement to avoid vertigo from looking up-down (my -4 is horrible for this as it sits on the tunnel in front of the stick so it's low and partially hidden by the stick, I need to come up with a better mount and more perm solution but haven't yet).
 
Screen Reflection

Guy's

One of our RV8 flyers in Newcastle Aus, is having a lot of trouble with the reflection he is getting from his 296. In some light conditions it's like looking in a mirror.
Even when shaded from direct sunlight the background light still makes the screen hard to read.
Anyone having this issue with other Garmin units? Any ideas for reducing the reflection from the screen.

Mark
TeamRV8A
Newcastle Australia
 
Turn off terrain shading.

The 296 is much easier to see if the terrain shading is turned off. Not a problem with the 495/496.
 
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