Garmin 496 Smart Airspace
 

I was about to sell my 496 to a friend who was asking (when I took him for a flight) what the different colour lines mean. To be honest, its never occurred to me, I've always just worked on the basis that the "Smart" airspace turns the lines bolder if you are at the same level as that airspace, which is obviously the case but I wondered if there was a map key or something for the 496? There's nothing in the manual and I just spoke to Garmin Europe in Southampton who sounded unsure too!

Any help much appreciated!

Just a guess but, different class of airspace?

On my 296 it seems to be different colours for different classes, and solid or dashed depending on whether the airspace hits the ground or not.

Anybody who can work out what all the funny lines on a Gx96 mean, I wanna their email address, because I can't work it out :) A lot of the stuff I see on mine I cannot relate to anything on the CAA map. A config issue, maybe...

A Gx96 makes a good "DCT box" for IFR backup in case of an aircraft power failure, and the 496 makes a good GPWS when wired into the intercom.

But for normal navigation, you want a big screen running a real "printed" VFR chart. Garmin don't make any of those.