Holdposition, I splashed out on a 196 a month or so back and have used it in anger. It was as a replacement for a Garmin 90 so I bought it because I knew my way around Garmin.
It's brill. The map is as cluttered or uncluttered as you like and can be scaled in an out. To give you an idea, I can fill the entire screen with the width of a runway at one extreme and see all of northern Europe at the other. The CDI and map combined on the same page are excellent and you can set other data fields to give running info that you find useful. I have time to next waypoint, distance to run ground speed and bearing, but there is a host of others.
The options are seemingly endless.
There is a page that gives you in effect an IFR panel with a VSI, altimeter, ASI CDI and DI and a sort of AH. I have flown around for half an hour with sole reference to these instruments (with a safety pilot of course) and they work. Might get you out of the pooh one day, but not a replacement for proper dials.
In addition to a normal aviation database it has towns and village, which you can use as waypoints, and the usual go to buttons. For airfields with a Jeppeson plate it is, I think, meant to be able to configure itself as an ILS, but I have yet to get that bit sorted. It has the usual 3d navigation facilities.
Aside from the aviation stuff it has a road map so you can use it to navigate in the car (not quite to street level) and a Marine database. Not used that because going to see in far too dangerous for my liking! Also has tide table, celestial databases and something to tell you the best times to go hunting and fishing!
The bits that come with it are useful, the aerial is on a decent length of wire, as is the faglighter power lead and some computer cable thingy which looks too complicated for me. If you have already got a Garmin power lead in your a/c it will work on the 196.
It seems to last about 6 or 7 hours on 4 Duracell type AA batteries and the satellite gain time is seconds. It has never lost the satellites whilst I have used it. Even in the car with the Arial stuck on the windscreen it still worked whilst under the canopy in the petrol station!
You may get the impression I am pleased with it. You would be wrong, I think it’s ******ing amazing.
BTW I have nothing to do with Garmin but would be pleased to receive usual agency rates for this eulogy!
Last edited by Ludwig; 24th October 2002 at 10:14.