Best portable GPS?
 

My car GPS was stolen the other day, so I thought I might get a new combined
aviation/road GPS next time around.

So far, it seems like my options are:

Airbox Freedom Clarity
Bendix AV80R
Garmin Aera 500

Has anyone got any opinions or first hand experience with any of these? Also, does the Airbox do road navigation (I can't seem to find anything about that), or only air?

The prices seem to be pretty much the same.

Is there by any chance an app for the iPhone that could do this to a lesser degree? Airbox has a navigation database for it, but there doesn't seem to be a moving map version. Anyone?

Thanks,
A.

I have the 496 with the traffic from the zaon XRX and that works perfect.

Adam,

You have more options than that.

If you buy a new car satnav that works on the Windows CE operating system, you can use one of the following on it:

PocketFMS
Sky Demon
Memory Map

Some of them might take a little more fiddling than the others to get working, but in general these work on WinCE car sat nav's.

Colm

Given those choices, I would pick the Garmin aera. Since it is a Nuvi, it will be a better road navigator than the others.

From experience using the 496 - its a fantastic aviation GPS - head and shoulders above competition, but almost entirely unusable in a car. At the same time, you can't have everything...

I've got the Airbox. Overall pretty pleased with it but it is aviation only.

1/2 mil and a pair of eyes! :E

Garmin (296 0r 495) for flying, Tom Tom for road.

Or 496 if you like the Garmin road set-up.

Simples.........

Cusco

Sounding a slight note of discord, I think that personally I'd buy a specialist GPS for each that is best suited to the job (ditto for my walking GPS).

Although, I am pretty sure that they'd all be made by Garmin, which has consistently never let me down as a brand; cash being no object probably a 496, Nuvi and eTrex respectively.

G

I saw this thread some time ago but decided to say nothing until my AV80R came back from repair. Well, it has and I am NOT impressed. The original unit was bought new in August and worked very well in the air. My other half played with it while I was driving and got annoyed with the way it kept insisting on taking us the "scenic" route despite me heading the obvious way to the M40 from home. Probably just a set-up selection thing. It worked. The unit was always plugged in when in use and consequently the battery was always well up. The flight planning, being easy and quick did not run the battery down enough for the fault to show up. When it did show, the unit had not been used for some weeks, the battery was about half depleted and the unit failed its aviation database checks and lost ALL of my routes and waypoints. After recharging the battery it powered up fine but again, when launched with only 3 bars out of 4 in the battery, it crashed and wiped all of my entered data.

The replacement unit came yesterday, via Pooleys who have been very helpful. Being a new unit, it came with a November 2008 database which I need to update. Normally you would register a new unit and they enable a single free database download, valid up to 45 days from the invoice date. With a replacement unit, you don't have a new invoice so you have to contact some database department at Bendix King and try to explain why you need another free database download....... What a pity this is not done by the service centre rather than leaving it for the poor customer.

After partially charging the battery on the replacement unit I powered it up and went into the flying mode to make sure that it doesn't show the fault of the previous unit, phew, OK. Today I went to the driving mode and find that the new unit crashes in spectacular style whenever you try to input a street in the "find address" option of the driving programme. I have connected it to the internet and downloaded the latest operating system files but it still crashes at the find address option.

I will be talking to Pooleys on Monday morning, again!

So, when the unit is working properly it is good. It is small, neat, easy to use and does pretty much what you want. The screen is bright enough for bubble canopy use if you angle it carefully. A good range of mounting hardware is supplied. I would like it to keep a log of flights with take off and landing times going back further than ONE flight. I used the unit, handheld, on the bus in Manchester and it was very helpful. Warned me when my stop was coming up and guiding me to my sisters house through a maze of backstreets at night. Perhaps I have been unlucky but the reliability so far has been piss poor. It doesn't inspire confidence. I will be taking a good old Garmin 12XL along as a backup for some time, assuming that I actually get a working replacement unit "before one of us dies".

Rans6Andrew.

edited to insert a missing word - sorry

Just unlucky most likely - my AV80R works perfectly. The Car navigation is good - works with postcodes too. I prefer it over a Tom Tom unit I have, and it niftily zooms out when you're on a motorway or don't need to turn off for many miles so you get to see town/place names you're passing rather than just looking at a "road line" with arrows the whole time.

No problems with route finding - around the same as the Tom Tom, but both are less "effective" at getting the best route than my built in RTI sat nav in my Volvo (comparing the suggested with local knowledge - the Volvo gets closer to the way you'd likely go in real life for no apparent reason - both the others stick to main routes regardless of setting).

I also like the analogue volume control and the "air hostess" ping noise it plays before annoucements. It also has a nice trip/stats page.

Not used the Garmin, so can't offer an opinion about it - it looks pretty good and from another thread does IFR/Airways.

The AV80R also does music/photos/movies and ebooks - not massively useful per se if you have an iPod/iPhone/etc, but I have popped a few movies/albums on it and it works quite well with the built in speaker.

I'm inclined to agree with Slopey. Just unlucky I think. I 've had my AV8OR for over a year now- and it more than does what is says on the tin. I use it for both road and flying. I would recommend it without hesitation. but get some cheap spare Nokia batteries off t'internet as battery life is probably its main weakness.

Edited to add: I've never played with the Garmin 496, but the Garmin GNS430 in our club aircraft does my head in - I just can't get the large and small righthand knobs to do what I want them to do. I~ much prefer the touchscreen options of the AV8OR. Within 3 touches I can get the frequencies of the nearest airport, as well as have extended runway lines of the active displayed on the screen.

I'm not a pilot but I would strongly advise Garmin, based on their phenomenal after sales service. In the rare event of failure it is not unheard of for Garmin to replace with a brand new item even if the original was well outside warranty.

We have a 496 in one aeroplane and it is brilliant but will probably get an Aera for the other. It is essentially the same GPS but with touch screen, slightly bigger display and you can still interface the Zaon to it. I'm not interested in the road map functions, neither am I with the 496 and so was going to get a 495 for the second aeroplane but investigated the Aera in some depth and it appears to offer the same features.

Regardless of whether you go with an Aera or AV80r, you'll find that flight plan data entry is a million times quicker on the touchscreen device than on the 2/3/4 series with those cursors/knobs.

Looking up details of airspace/reporting points en-route is a breeze when you can just tap on it. The other chap I've been flying with was way behind trying to scroll through letters.

And planning a new reroute is simplicity itself with a tap - finished entering my route in the bar a good 20 mins before my compadre - left more time for beers!

One thing to check with the Garmin is VFR reporting points - the 296 database is poor compared to the AV80R - I don't know how the Aera database is for that. Anyone with one care to comment?

I think the Aera is still too new for meaningful user reports.

it would appear that the problems with my replacement AV80R are all down to software/firmware. After much chasing around today I was asked to call Harry M Pilot shop, Edinburgh, where a helpful Danny was up to speed with the units. He sent me a link to a webpage where I have been able to obtain a download which cures the problem. Something in the early Go-Drive software objects to some towns (Reading, Birmingham,Bristol etc) and causes the unit to crash when trying to go there. It was fixed in May 09 but they are still shipping units made in 2008 with the then latest versions. Somewhere along the way there has been a "step change" in the firmware which changes the way the update procedure operates and some units need special handling to move forwards.

It would seem that I am sorted now but .................Time will tell.

Rans6Andrew

I've been using the Garmin 496 for a couple of years. It took a little study to learn all
the button strokes, but once mastered, it has exceeded all my expectations. The negative,
perhaps the cost of maintaining the data base is a little high, in my opinion.

I got a Garmin Nuvi for the car before I got the 496 (birthday gift). After enjoying using
it on vacations and such it has also turned out to be a great tool.

Those experiences combined with having seen some of the demos and sales
propaganda on the new Aera, that is the machine I would choose today. Luckily for
me :\, the 496 looks like it will keep going for years.

Good Luck.

the 496 has the Visual reporting points that the older Garmin data base lacked.
Very useful and worth confirming on the Aera.

I also have a 496, which has been serving me well for 18 months. I think its Automotive mode is poor. The need to have the speaker on a string thing plugged into the 12v socket on the car to get voice alerts is a nuisance. For aviation though, I'm quite happy with it.

I have a collection of other Garmins for other purposes; GPS Maps 60, 60CSx, 76C and a Street Pilot c510 for the car. They all work well but it's very expensive updating all those maps.

The Aera 550 would be nice. It could be used in the car as it has superior features to my c510. The 496's Automotive mode is no better than the 60/76 hand held series.

I don't think I can justify it though :-(

Lots of people object to those towns....