Originally Posted by 172Driver
Something I've been wondering about - how easy are touchscreens to operate in turbulence? I've never used one of those thingys in flight (I am a Garminosauros.....) but imagine you could easily hit the wrong 'button' in a shaky cockpit. Any of the users of Aera or other touchscreen units care to comment?
Not as bad as you'd think - provided they're mounted properly. With the AV80R stuck on the side of the cockpit with the sucker attachment, you can hit the buttons quite accurately in turbulence. If it's quite bouncy you just need to use the unit itself to hold on to and kind of grab it and use your index finger on the face - not as complicated as it sounds and doubt you'd have a problem with it.
As regards the size question,
Dunno quite where you'd put a 7" device in a 172 cockpit without it getting in the way a little (especially if you're two up). The Aera/Av/Clarity size seems perfect for just sticking to the side. The form factor of the 695 demands you have to use it vertically, but it'd get in the way stuck on the side, and might be to long/wide to mount nicely on the yoke. Same would be true of the AV80R ACE. And that would be a double pest if you wanted to plug it in and had trailing wires on an unsecured unit.