In article .com,
"paul kgyy" wrote:
I have occasionally been frustrated with XM timeouts. Garmin 396 has
had some teething problems also - magnets in the antenna, bogus terrain
warnings, etc. Actually, I don't see any sense in terrain warnings in
a non-ifr GPS. If it's not IFR rated, you should not risk your life on
it.


Actually, the 396 has been pretty solid, and when there have been minor
issues, Garmin has been quick to resolve them. The terrain warnings
mentioned in other threads are not "bogus"--they are accurate, but just
not necessary when you're on short final to land at an airport.
Contrast that with the missing obstacles, misplaced terrain, and
incorrect airport locations that often occur in the AnywhereMap software
and databases.

Contrary to what Control Vision claims, AnywhereWx and the Garmin 396 DO
NOT provide the same weather information--the information available on
the Garmin is far more extensive for the same subscription cost, and
Garmin implements the features in a more intuitive manner.

Control Vision's quality control problems have nothing to do with having
to run on multiple PDAs, and everything to do with the fact that CV just
doesn't care about quality control; this is evidenced by the fact that
quality control issues are often most prevalent in the databases. I
suspect that the investment required to operate a quality control
program just isn't worth the expense to CV's president. AnywhereMap was
basically a hobbyist project that CV's president decided to sell, and I
don't think that it's ever become anything more than a hobbyist project
in his mind. The software has some nice capabilities if you don't mind
constant tinkering, but the software and databases are certainly not
"production quality." While the system as it was worked fine for me, I
couldn't stand the incessant tinkering required to make it work well.

I'm not sure what kind of logic is employed that will decline to possess
and utilize any information which enhances safety, such as terrain
alerts. Using that logic, why even bother with XM weather, since it
isn't "certified?" I guess that's the same logic that some folks employ
to justify following a "certified" ADF for course guidance rather than a
hand-held GPS, but I think that's just nuts.


JKG