Garmin 396 Weather avoidance..

I agree completely with akiley here.

To me, the 396's value is in adding more detail to what's already
available. Especially in terms of calibrating your eyeballs. If you
try to stay in the clear as much as possible and use the 396 to add
dimensions to what you see (and hear from ATC/pireps), you'll find it a
tremendous aid.

Having said that, any hard rules about flying thru purple and never
flying thru fuscia are generalizations at best. It's all about getting
the big picture, forecasts, actual, trends, and filling in the details.
Rain in non-convective conditions is completely different from
convective rain. Sometimes the value is all about being able to see
what's going on beyond that wall of clouds in front of you.

One of my early experiences flying north out of FL into Savannah - I
swear I was doing better with the 396 than the guys with onboard radar.
What I was seeing was probably less important to them than to me but
being able to see around corners enabled me to make the best fuel stop
while they seemed more dependent on ATC advice. Pretty amazing when
compared to pre-396 days.

akiley wrote:
Dan wrote:

For those of you with a Garmin 396, how do you avoid dangerous weather,
avoid yellow and steer clear of the lightning strike indications? I am
considering the purchase of one and am wondering how to use the info
safely, but yet with the maximum utility.
a cloud that hadn't produced rain yet.

My solution is to try to stay either above to see the buildups, or
below and avoid the rain shafts. But the 396 can also be used to find
areas of less cloud cover and lower tops. The echo tops have that
feature where you can scroll through the altitudes and watch where
cloud appears. Then you can just look for the holes in the regular
satellite display.

So to me the trick it so combine all these: The 396 weather features,
what image ATC is painting, the overall weather picture to determine if
the ingredients for convection are there, what you see out the window,
PIREPS and ride reports, tactical weather flying to try to keep
yourself visual as much as possible. Green or yellow may be fine on
days when you know there is little chance of buildups. But if green is
next to a steep gradient of yellow, into orange to red. Steer clear.

I think the 396 is an amazing tool. You can sit on the ground in your
airplane and it's almost like having the internet in your lap. I sat
on the ramp at Midway a few weeks ago and waited for a hole in the
weather using the 396. I practice with Elite simulator which will now
drive your 396 plugged into a serial port. I can put the satellite
antenna out the window to get real weather, download through Elite and
the internet real weather, and I can do near real time weather practice
sim flying. And you get a great automotive navigator for a few extra
bucks. ... akiley