Garmin GpsMap 396 - Flight Test

Made it up in the air today. Scattered cells and rain all over the
place. Mostly, moving out and clearing. 30 seconds after take off, lost
the GPS sat lock. Took about 15 seconds to regain it. In the next 5
minutes, it lost lock several more times. I'm thinking, external antenna
is loopy. I hooked up the stubby one and it still failed on and off. I
switched to the satellite page and watched all the levels go wildly up
and down. WAAS signal was up and down, mostly down. My previous 2 GPS
units (one circa 1995) NEVER did this. On one 4 mile stretch, the signal
was down to zero and stayed there. Nothing. Zilch. Turns did not really
affect the performance. After about 15 more minutes of flying, it
settled down to a more "normal" pattern. Several sats were at the top
level and several more were 3/4 up and moving about just a little. Once
settled down, turns made a big difference. As some were lost, others
gained strength.

All during the events, the WX signal kept up fine. When it did lock
(about 50 out of 55 flight minutes), the weather display was EXACTLY
what I wanted to see. Rain intensity and direction. This was the
specific day I would use this unit for.

All looked to be in sync until landing. Again, I watched the sat signals
all march towards zero, however, they quickly recovered before losing lock.

I'm thinking this unit has an internal antenna connection defect. I'll
try it out again in the next few days and see whether it is going back
to the dealer.

Not exactly confidence inspiring. This unit may be a bad one. It
happens, I just wish it were a complete failure instead of this
intermittent crap.

I'll report on its progress.

Mike