I can't find Blakesburg in the 496, does it have an ident code ? (or a
different name ?)

"Jay Honeck" wrote:

Okay, so it's not quite aviation related, but we DID use the 496's
capability today to navigate by road to Blakesburg -- the annual AAA
(Antique Aircraft Association) fly-in. (Which was fantastic, by the
way. It runs through the weekend, so I urge you to check it out!)

This morning we were considering flying into Blakesburg, but the
thought of flying our spam can into that exclusive (members only)
fly-in was a bit too daunting for either of us. And, since Blakesburg
is less than 2 hours away from Iowa City, it seemed like a great reason
to drop the rag top on the Mustang and do a little road trip!

First, let me tell you that Blakesburg is absolutely the most rural
area in Iowa, which itself is one of the most rural areas in America.
We're talking lots of gravel roads, farms -- and not much else. This
would be a difficult test for ANY GPS, let alone one that purports to
do triple duty (aviation, marine, and driving).

So, sitting in my driveway, I first found Blakesburg's Antique Airfield
in the aviation side of the 496's database. Being a private strip, this
would not have been found in the 396's database -- so chalk one up to
the new 496.

Once I found the airport, I switched over to the driving mode, and told
the unit that I wanted the "Shortest Route" (as opposed to the fastest)
to Antique Airfield. Within 15 seconds, it had the course loaded, and
off we went.

The unit is amazing. Garmin put the speaker (for audible commands) in
the cigar lighter cord, which, at first, seemed counter-intuitive.
However, we soon discovered that this location enabled them to make the
speaker big enough to be LOUD, and also enabled them to keep the 496's
dimensions small. We were driving with the top down, at highway
speeds, and the voice commands were plenty loud enough to be easily
heard over the wind noise. Chalk up number 2 for the 496.

Other than routing us into some road construction (which we could have
hit anyway), the route the 496 selected was awesome! It was completely
different than what we would have chosen using a standard road map, but
it was very scenic, interesting, and quick. One amazing thing we found
about the 496 was that if you don't like a road that it has selected
(because, for example, it's gravel) -- just drive right past it.
Within seconds the unit has recalculated your route to your
destination, using your new current location, and audibly TELLS YOU
where to go! Chalk up number 3 for the 496.

We were quite pleased (and surprised) with the ease and accuracy of
navigating to such an out-of-the-way location. On our way home this
evening, we decided to test the database further, and let the unit
select a place for us to eat in Sigourney, IA -- a little town of maybe
1000 people.

Within seconds of selecting "nearest food", we had directions to the
three restaurants in town. We selected one, and drove right to it, no
muss, no fuss. The food was awesome, the prices reasonable -- and
after dinner, we simply turned the unit back on and it remembered where
we were going, where we were, and recalculated a new route back to our
original course. Chalk up number 4 for the 496.

The unit comes with a remote mount that has a "sand bag" on the bottom
(like the old "bean bag" ash trays of yore) that conforms to anything
is sets on. This enables the unit to simply sit up on the dash board,
and not move even when I did some fairly spirited twisties in the
Mustang. Again, we were most pleased with the way the unit performed,
and will be using it on all future driving trips, for sure.

Actually, to be honest, I am far more impressed with the 496 in driving
mode than in aviation mode. In aviation mode, our Lowance and AvMap
GPS's were equal or superior to the 496 -- in the driving mode, nothing
comes close. (And, of course, with regards to weather capability, the
496 is *it* -- there is no competition.)