Well Pavan... my .02...

We comparison shopped 18 mos ago, and chose the AM 1000.
Bigger screen, excellent RAM mount and all those who had one
.....well, not one negative comment.

Al we heard about was Garmin, Garmin, etc....but when we ASKED
the owners, the pilots that we heard from were very satisfied with
the Lowrance and were , umm.... mostly quite happy with the Garmin
units.

So... we tried a 196 in a Cessna here, ...what a tiny screen!
(In comparison) and tiny buttons. If all the air around here was
smooth, the small screen and buttons would not be a problem.

The AM fastens to the yoke with that EXCELLENT RAM mount, and
I can operate it with my big thumbs while holding on to the yoke..

The AM, yoke and my thumbs move as a unit in rough air, and I
rarely "miss" a button ...

Sad note, our AM 1000 died completely at 16 months, out of
warranty.

Shipped back to Lowrance (Canada) on a Thursday, inspected on
Monday, could not be repaired at their depot, so they will send me a
new replacement for $299 (Cdn) I made a deal to trade up to the AM
2000 Colour for another $100.

(I thought this was a great deal,---- less than the difference
between selling the 1000 and buying the new 2000)

Well.... the colour unit is all I expected and more!

Screen a little smaller (same case) , and battery life is
about 3 hrs compared to the AM 1000's 5 hrs.

We use ours on the Aircraft 12 Volt supply, so this is not a
concern. We treat the internal batts as emergency supply ONLY, and
carry extra.

Lowarnce service and phone help/guidance has been superb,
they (on the phone) seem knowledgeable and helpful, the mapping
("MapCreate"), downloads and upgrades all work as advertised.

I am told there will be a software upgrade for the Sat
weather, but so far Lowrance cannot confirm this , so don't quote me
here...

We are really happy with the performance and support of the
Lowrance product...

Dave


.. .On 19 Sep 2005 14:54:24 -0700, wrote:


Hi everybody -

I'm in the market for a handheld aviation GPS , and have narrowed down
to the Airmap 2000C & Garmin 296. I need color & terrain mapping ,
which both have.

Try as I will though , I can't find an honest comparision of the two ;
retailers push both (for obvious reasons).

The strange thing is that their prices seem to differ significantly.
Sample prices -
Garmin 296 (with inbuilt terrain mapping) = $1500 (aprox)
Airmap 2000C (plus terrain mapping extra) = $1100 (aprox)

All you enlightened folks...which should I choose and why ?


regards
Pavan Bhatnagar