New Garmin 396

Jonathan Goodish wrote:

I am amazed that folks are predicting that the 396 is going to be the
holy grail of handhelds when, to my knowledge, no one so far in this
thread has touched one.

That is always possible. But, all of Garmin's recent (last five years?)
products to date have been hits. The 430/530 - everyone loves 'em. The
195 - a trailblazer. 295 - I still have mine and it works great. 196
- first GPS with a small "partial panel" display (and it works.)
Everyone loved it. 296 - terrain + weather, lithium ion batteries,
great unit size/display ratio. Another hit. Now the 396. Honestly,
who'd bet against Garmin? Give it a couple of months and I think you'll
see the unit lives up to the hype (which is user, not company generated.)

Secondly, the configuration issues that Richard speaks of are overblown
in my experience. He has continued to reiterate his own points, which
is fine, but some of them I've refuted. I do have a PDA system with XM
weather and I NEVER have to touch Bluetooth configuration or "manage"
the Bluetooth connections. Things may be different on a TabletPC, or
for those trying to do other things with their PDAs, but out of the box
they seem pretty much plug-and-play to me. They obviously aren't as
integrated as the 396, but that has both advantages and disadvantages.
Many of the XM problems reported by CV and WxWorx on Wings users seem
related to XM, so there is no guarantee that Garmin's users won't
experience them too.

Well, I'm not a total stranger to PDA solutions, or AnywhereMap/WX for
that matter. Fact is, this is a piece of software which cannot ever
hope to approach Garmin's reliability. We were discussing the 396 on
another forum, and one user stated that after the last time her AWM
"crapped out," she didn't bother to reload it and simply used the GPS in
her car for land navigation. I have used PDAs for years, including in
the cockpit, and even when I was happy with my cost-effective Palm VIIx
+ Palm.net + CBAV, I knew it was a less-than-ideal solution. The
extremely low cost of entry and tiny monthly fees made it worth it.

The PDA can be a useful tool, but clearly, it is not made for aviation
use. It can be hacked into doing so, but it will never be ideal, for
many obvious reasons. The interface is just not optimized for use
in-flight, in the cockpit.

The entire discussion began when Richard suggested that the 396 would
have less wires running to it than a PDA. With a Bluetooth capable PDA,
a Bluetooth GPS, and Bluetooth XM receiver, that assertion is false. I
simply stated that and then things started to snowball.

(Shrug) You could bluetooth it, but I agree with Richard. It's a
hassle, not to mention expensive. I've used Bluetooth devices before
and you're often limited by proper positioning of the devices in
relation to each other, configuration issues (glad you don't have them,
but many others do) and all kinds of other headaches which I simply no
longer have the patience to deal with. The 396 can operate with as
little as one external cable connection. The lithium ion battery, if
proven to be as effective as it has been in the 296, will provide more
than enough juice for flights of medium to long duration. Your
bluetooth setup is not typical; most folks are dealing with a lot of
wires in the cockpit for AWM/Wx. This is proven true by the fact that
excess cables are perhaps one of the top two complaints about the
cobbled-together AWM setup.

I am not anti-Garmin. I do like Garmin's products, and I presently own
and use two Garmin GPS units regularly. However, contrary to popular
belief, Garmin's products are computers and their software does have
bugs. Also, before I'm ready to declare that the 396 solves world
hunger, I'd like to see it or at least hear from those who have seen it
and used it. I suspect that we will have many hands-on reports posted
in a couple of weeks, after Oshkosh.

The difference is, these 'computers' are both DESIGNED and BUILT by
Garmin specifically for aviation functions. While it would be
inaccurate to say that their past products have been totally bug-free,
those bugs have been of the "minor" variety and quickly fixed with
revisions readily available from Garmin's website. Bugs are easy to fix
when all of the products are identical to each other; not so when you're
patching software which can run on many different PDAs.

The 396 may not solve world hunger, but I suspect it'll solve the GA
world's "hunger" for a portable weather solution which is reliable,
transportable, and cost-effective.

What issues did Rich mention about CV's products? In fact, I didn't see
any negative comments or issues reported about CV's products in this
thread. What am I missing?

I am surprised you need me to recount this for you. Whether they're
"negative" or not is in the eye of the beholder, but here you go:

"Your PDA needs a GPS antenna, an XM Wx antenna, power to the weather
receiver, and either a power cable or batteries to the PDA. You also
need to manage the Bluetooth connection, a source of technical issues in
flight."

"For the market of renter pilots -- which is quite substantial -- a 396
is much more convenient logistically than a PDA solution."

"The Garmin portable GPS units also have vertical navigation abilities
superior to any PDA, which can be quite helpful in an emergency."

"It is relevant to renter pilots in particular because it is by far the
easiest way to put both GPS navigation and weather in a rental airplane.
Sure you can set up an XM receiver, Bluetooth GPS, and PDA whenever you
rent a plane, but that is a lot more work then plugging in a 396."

Best regards,

-Ryan