In article .com,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:
Something that works "fairly well" isn't what I expect in a $3,000
piece of equipment the size of my son's PSP. Zooming out causes the
target you are searching for to disappear, as that tiny little screen
"declutters" itself. If it DIDN'T do that, all you would see was a
giant glob of gibberish, with the airport names entangled with one
another.

Zooming out--even to hundreds of miles--still shows the state outlines,
and presumably you know where your "target" is in the appropriate state.
Zoom out, position the target on the appropriate location, zoom in, and
repeat progressively until you've acquired your target. Alternately, if
your target is in your flight plan route, just select it and hit "enter"
to view the weather. It isn't "perfect," but I'm not sure of a better
solution; you would need something like a 46" wide-screen to maintain a
practical high detail display over long distances.



Check the sales of Lowrance's Airmap 2000c. THAT is a usably-sized
screen -- and they were selling like hot-cakes at OSH.

The AirMap 2000c has a slightly larger screen, but actually displays
LESS on that big screen because of its lower resolution. The big
selling point to the Lowrance units is price. However, I suspect that
Garmin far outsells Lowrance with portable aviation GPS units.

One point I will give to Lowrance is that they have the screen oriented
the right way. I don't care so much what's on my sides as I do what's
in front of me, and the Garmin units are lacking with the landscape
orientation of the display.



with it, and the 496 is a nice, robust unit. But as soon as Garmin (or
anyone else) comes out with a larger screened version, you'll see
hundreds of 396s/496s on Ebay, overnight.

That's always the case, and it has nothing to do with a larger screen.
There are plenty of 396 units on the used market because folks want the
"latest and greatest."

I would love to see a larger screen version of the 396/496, but it can't
be so large that it is cumbersome, and even a screen twice the size as
that of the 396/496 will still require some manipulation to see
conditions over longer distances. It is always going to be a compromise.



JKG