I currently use a Garmin 296, but I have just purchased an aircraft with a Skymap IIIC panel mounted. Whilst I have yet to use it, I am quite certain that it will be great, certainly if I accept the previous owner's comments, but the downside, apart from the battery issue already covered here, is that you have to send the memory card away to be updated, at what I think is a high cost. At least with the 296, I can easily download the updates myself from the Garmin website at a much more reasonable cost.
When with it be possible to update the card ourselves?
Lysander