Normally the cable is bluetooth, with modern GPSs.

Before that it was RS232.

Have you tried reading the manual?

It took me all of 60 seconds to find out that the Aera 500 comes with a USB cable & that you can use MapSource to transfer routes, tracks & waypoints.

I am a fairly new user of an Aera500, (Replaces my first one a GPS 90, then the Pilot III) and have found it to be a great piece of kit for my flying needs.

BUT, Garmin, please why do I have to constantly take the WATERPROOF battery cover off to attach the USB which probably is less & less waterproof every time I upload/download routes to my PC, when there is a redundant ( I know about the future use blurb) usb socket on the mount??????

I use Skydemonlightfor uploading routes and think it is a suberb freeby for VFR UK flying.

Just found this thread and I didn't want to start a new thread over the same issue.

I also have the Aera 500 and I'm very disappointing with lack of search functions when searching for towns or way points when flying.

The only way I can find tows or nearby citys is by doing a full address search as if I'm going to someones house. Just not pratical when flying..

Anyone have any solutions or ideas how to resolve this? I wrote to Garmin about this, but they don't seem to care:(

Let me know if you find a solution. Irritates the hell out of me, too.

I moved to the Aera 500 from a Lowrance Airmap 500 which, apart from colour, was superior in every way. Sadly Lowrance stopped providing database updates and then I had screen problems, or I'd still be using it.

What I do is use Google maps to pick a suitable place (1 High Street often works) in any town I want to use as a waypoint.

Also, a small word of caution: using Skydemon Light to plan routes then uploading to the Garmin results in the Garmin failing to recognise that,e.g., an airfield is an airfield - you get a waypoint in the same place but without the 'special' features like runway extensions, radio frequencies &c. I usually manually plan the route now, or plan in Skydemon Light but then edit on the Garmin.

What I do for the time being I just scroll on the map and then save the towns as I go,and then I can find them in recent waypoints section.
Not handy at all when flying as hands are shaky:ugh:

Other then that I love it, works great, it brought me places too.
I used my friends bendix king AV08R for a while,I didnt like it. I found aera much easier to use, with more features apart the annoying town search.

I will write another email to Garmin and hopefully they can sort this out.
I'm sure if automotive Garmin has the town input function on the go without the need of an address, I cant see the reason Aera cant have the same feature.

A thread relight: I had a problem last flights; the "press to accept" at start up would not respond at all to being pressed, so no useful navigation. The touch screen still works. 'cause I could touch the power button, which changed the display to brightness and sound, and I could touch to select those. And I know it's navigating inside, as when I landed at a buddy's grass runway, it gave me a terrain warning as I approached. But, for three flights, it would not press to accept, so no navigation.

Has anyone else had this trouble?

Well thank you tmmorris! That worked! I touched the lower left of the blank screen, and held it, powered it up, and it came to life without delay. It accepted the press to accept, and went straight into navigation. I appreciate the wisdom very much, I will now delay purchasing a replacement!

No problem - I found that solution online when having problems with mine (mine got stuck in a bootup loop and wouldn't get to the main screen)

The downside is it deletes all your stored data but you can always recreate the routes etc.

Folks, I have a question related to the aera 500-series. Last week I was a pax on an experimental airplane flown by a friend in Central Europe. The a/c was (still) equipped with that particular device installed on the instrument panel in a dedicated cradle. The issue was that the aera did not want to show the precise position, but also did not show the red 'X' marks on the screen, which would indicate the lack of GPS signal or its reception problems. My friend believed that the issue was caused by the GPS jamming over the Baltic Sea in the recent weeks. However, after touchdown, we went to the car, and I turned on my own Garmin Drive 50 car navigation, which immediately showed the right position. Hence, I have doubts regarding the alleged GPS jamming. That being said, what should be done to bring that aera to proper operation? Soft or hard reset? Cross-checking the connectors within the cradle? I personally have no experience with aera and I have no idea how to solve the above mentioned problem. Any suggestions are therefore welcome.

You seem to be describing GPS spoofing not GPS jamming. In either case the signal likely comes from a ground based transmitter. An airborne receiver may be vulnerable if there is a clear line of sight between the spoofing transmitter and the GPS receiver. A receiver in a car is not likely to have line of sight and would not be impacted.

A search for "GPS spoofing" turns up lots of references. I doubt it is significant that an Aera 500 was in use but the vulnerability to spoofing is possibly dependent on the antenna installation.

Thank you for the input. The aera 500-series equipment in that a/c did not show proper position on the ground either. In contrary, a simple GPS car navigation immediately got the fix and showed the right position. That's confusing.

I will ask the friend next time I see him, if the aera used its embedded antenna, or whether it was connected to a small external antenna installed over the instrument panel, just under the windshield. I am not sure if that particular antenna actually served an Ultra EFIS which was also present.

My understanding is that if spoofing was indeed active in the area, its source must have been very close. Given your experience, are GPS spoofing signals omnidirectional but aired at altitude (eg. from towers or high buildings) or focused in a directional beam towards a denial area?

This paper is informative. https://ops.group/dashboard/wp-conte...UP-WG-OG24.pdf

Note the statement that GPS receivers may be impacted by spoofing long after the spoofing signal was present at the receiver.

"Navigation data

The navigation data contain various parameters that are used during the operation of the receiver such as satellite orbital parameters and clock corrections. Also, the navigation data provide an indication of the GPS satellites’ health. If the spoofer broadcasts incorrect navigation data (which is generally the case), then the GNSS receiver may continue to calculate incorrect results even after it leaves the spoofing area and receives the true ranging signals again. This will continue to be the case until the receiver is manually reset or the navigation data “expires” and is refreshed automatically (which may never happen if the spoofer broadcasts its data such that the spoofed navigation data expiration date has been set to some time well in the future)."

Thank you very much indeed for the input. You're right: after becoming a victim of an apparent spoofing, the Aera provided incorrect position for a long time. My friend, who owns the unit, was confused. So was I. He brought it to me to try to solve the issue. What I did was to update the unit using the WebUpdater first, and then using Garmin Express. The updates were, however, unrelated to the position processing. I also removed the battery for a while. After re-installing the Aera in the cradle inside the a/c, it started to correctly calculate the position and to show it on the moving map. So far.

Given that the Aera can easily become a victim of spoofing these days, particularly in Central Europe, I wonder if there is any other reliable and miniature electronic navigation alternative for ultralight aviation at present? A VOR-capable handie-talkie comes to my mind at the moment since there is simply no space to install an ADF or VOR in the confined cockpit of friend's a/c not to mention the dedicated antennas.