Garmin GPS comparison GPSMAP 495 vs. Area500
 

Hi all,

need to get more details!!

So far we are using the 196 (grey scale) and it works great!

However aging eyes in the company believe they would be better served with some fancy color screens!:)

So, we started looking into the best/ economic solution and it basically comes down to the GPSMAP 495 versus the Area 500.

Our big concern is the "touchscreen" of the 500.

We are using the 196 for "local navigation, user waypoints, easy to play with while on the run" - specifically in a mining/exploration environment - AS350 B3, mounted on top of the panel.

The new GPSs are ment for the same environment....


Question:

Does anyone have field experience with either one?

How does the touchscreen "work" in a shaking, vibrating, turbulent environment! (e.g. the buttons on the 196 have a lot of "definition" when pressed - how is the touchscreen?)

As always, any reply is very welcome!

Thanx guys and gals!!

3top

"fly safe and have fun!" :cool:

For a number of year I have played with different GPS units, looking for the next better one, but found the 196 worked the best - but not greatest. Color looks good till the sun shines on it then it seems to wash out and harder to view - even worst if you have an angle view. I went to the big King AV8OR Ace, which is touch screen, and that was horrid - sent it right back to the dealer and ended up with the Garmin 695 and 430 WAAS. Now I'm a happy chappy!

No experience with the 500 but if I dropped my 496 today there would be a new one here tomorrow via over night express. I will not be without it's wx capabilities and XM radio thru the mixer. The AOPA data base has come in handy but is not required. A Flight Guide will suffice for US work.

I have the 495. Bought it earlier this year, upgrading from my trustee "pilot III"....

I love the 495...only bad thing is...using the rocker key with gloves, (on fires only---rest of the time I do not wear them), it can be tough. Other than that, I cannot believe I went for so long with out one. I pull it out every night and re-charge it...I have my own mount, so I can take it to any of our aircraft and install it in about 2 minutes. I have it all set up the way I like it with respect to map screens etc.

I like the track function...am able to download tracks to my laptop and give to fire managers right away. Also by zooming all the way in to 500 ft range I can fly either concentric circles or use it to fly a grid.

Have no experience with the 500....feel free to pm me or ask on here if you have further questions.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j3...0/IMG_4395.jpg

Mmmm ....

Likewise I have had a 495 for a year and a half .... BRILLIANT .... use it offshore (trying to find any one of 300+ platforms) also use it in the 139 ('cos the ones I fly don't have the 5th screen) ... its reliable, has reasonable battery life and has a tough case ..... wouldn't be without it! :D :D :D


:ok:

I had the opportunity to play with the area on behalf of a magazine, with the intention of doing a review, and in the end I had to send it back, because I just couldn't justify anyone ever buying one over my old 296 (no experience of the 4xx series), especially the later model with the sharper screen. The Bendix AV8OR is a better product (much more information on screen) , but even that has its problems - the road database reboots the machine if you type in certain destinations.

The battery life was awful (the av8or use standard nokia batteries so you can at least buy higher capacity ones).

The car kit is also nowhere near as good as that of the 296, and the suction pads do not take into account the fact that most aircraft windscreens are curved!

The 296 was also way more configurable.

Phil

We fly with the 495 and Aera. Like it, or not, Garmin has discontinued the 396 and says they will soon discontinue the 495/496.

The 495 has better battery life, and some dedicated keys that allow you to do certain functions without really looking at the unit.

The Aera is generally less expensive (depending on model), thinner and lighter, and much easier to add data because of the touchscreen interface. The touchscreen works with gloves. Sometimes the touchscreen can be frustrating because you hit an adjacent key by accident.

What I really like is the 695/696. A 695/696 and an attitude indicator gives you 99 per cent of what you need to fly a helo in the mountains.

Gordy said "I pull it out every night and re-charge it...I have my own mount, so I can take it to any of our aircraft and install it in about 2 minutes."

We recently had to send in a 496 that was charged this way. The problem is while the large main unit battery charges this way, the tiny battery that stores the time and date only charges when the unit is on. Eventually that battery ran down to the point that it would not take a charge. Garmin is aware of the problem and only charged $200 for an out of warranty exchange instead of the usual $400. If you run the unit plugged in most of the time this will not be a problem.

I've been through this same decision loop recently, having realised that my previous aviation GPS was so dreadful I simply wasn't bothering to use it any more.

I started a thread on this here, which you might like to take a look at.


When my Aera 500 arrived I had some problems updating the charts, but Garmin's product support were excellent in getting that sorted out.

So far, my total testing has however, thanks to an overseas business trip then horrible weather, been confined to flying my sofa - but there it looks really impressive - including that I can get a reliable satellite fix in my living room, which bodes well for use in aeroplanes. I shall report back once I've had a chance to fly it, but there's lots of informed opinion on the other thread.

G

I have had a GPSMAP 296 and an Area 500 in an R-22.
I prefer the 296 but the Area is good. I like the fixed buttond and rocker switch, but have to admit the Area touchscreen was not hard to use in the air.
The screen size is in practice no different at all - the Area has a black strip on right for touchscreen symbols, and that in effect makes the screen size identical to the 296 (I measured it).
The touchscreen on Area is not hard to use in heli if it is mounted ontop instrument panel. If you mount it on cyclic it is impossible due vibration (and visibility from vibration very poor).
Area much more sensitive GPS receiver so faster lock on and lock on in more difficult places, but the 296 seemed to be no problem with maintaining lock but slower to start to get initial lock on. (As an aside, I have heard the Area is more sensitive but downside is it can loose lock in vigorous aerobatics in fixed wing, but not an issue here).
I prefer 296 as I used to input flight plan using the map mode and the rocker switch to go around airspace issues here and would plan dog legs with turning points at odd places with no landmark so must use a "user" waypoint at a point in middle of nowhere - easy to do with 296/496 but can't be done with area on map as area has no ability to enter flight plan using the map.
Otherwise area was OK as was the 296. I however like the rocker on 296.
One last thing battery life whilst an issue is not a real problem for most as most of us use the 296 or Area on aircraft power in the mount.
Hope this helps.
John

Lama Bear...

Thanks for the heads up....So I should charge it with the unit turned on? My aircraft are not set up to power the unit. The only way I can do it is by using the vehicle charger, a radio clamshell battery and adapter.

Turn it on while you do your normal charge. The first sign of the little battery not charging is that the unit will start losing time when it is not used for some time.

Slightly off topic. If i was to buy a 495 in the states on my up coming trip and then bring it back to Australia, does anyone know if it is easy to update the maps and software to this region?

I've also been tossing up between the 495 and the 500 series and i think this thread has convinced me to get the 495.

Thanks
NiB.

Lama

Thanx...

It's a bit confusing and you will have to work out a bit of money for additional Garmin gear. I have done the same for my 496 to get the European maps on it. In addition to the aviation maps I also installed street maps, very handy when you fly in the alps because otherwise you don't have town names, streets, lakes, etc.

To do all that I purchased a Garmin Memory Card, the USB reader/writer for it, and the Street Map DVD (plus the overseas aviation database, but I got that online through the maps shop in myGarmin if I am not wrong).

There was a small problem when I tried to update the unit without getting the external memory card. It wouldn't overwrite the American database and just show an error.

Garmin Support told me to overwrite the data in the unit (without using an additional memory card), I would have to buy an Update Disk instead (but didn't really tell me where to get it). Therefore I opted to just get the memory card and install all the additional maps into it, the American maps still remain in the internal memory of the 496. In other words, I now have all maps on my unit at the same time.

While the memory card and USB reader was available in Europe, it turned out to be much cheaper ordering it from the US and getting it shipped with UPS Express and pay customs and tax for it. I just had to convince the seller to ship it to Europe. Most US companies don't. If you are traveling to the US, you better get everything while you are there.

Interesting thread as a result of which I looked at the 495, 500 and even 696.

For planning purposes only, I have been using Foreflight Mobile HD on my iPad which has a great form factor ( fits a kneeboard) excellent battery life and if you look at foreflight I get everything that any of them offer for the cost of an iPad which has better utility and $75 a year for the subscription. It even has reverse lighting in the iPad for night flight as well as excellent viewing in most lighting conditions.


For that I get low/high ifr charts and iap's, vfr sectionals including automatic change in scale to tac, weather overlays including radar, satellite, ceilings, temp/dewpoint, ceilings, vfr/ifr weather, all overlaid on planned route which can be entered as simply as airport Id lat/long, (I can even bend routes graphically with my finger to reroute myself around restrictions/weather :)) briefing/filing, every kind of info/ diagram you could want including safe taxi, tfr's, notams etc etc etc. All this on an extremely intuitive touch screen interface with gps etc and HUD.

Oh and did i forget to mention i can submit this post on the same device and do everything else that the iPad offers.

$600 all in - unbeatable. I enjoy my gamin 430/530 on board but with the benefit of a a great planning tool and back up before I turn a blade.

Hi all!

Thanx for the extensive replies!

I thought so: 495 wins over Aero500....

Personally I would like the 296 just fine, but they are no more....

XM -radio and radar weather is useless for me (Southamerica) so I try to find the cheaper versions without the US-toys.....

I think I will recommend the 495 for our ops as long as they are still available....

Thanks guys!!

3top :cool:

Gordy,
If your aircraft are wired in the "standard" way for fire, you're good to go. All you need is a cannon plug and a female "cigarette lighter" plug. You can use either the 3 pin plug (PSD machine receptacle) or the Aux FM plug. They're pretty easy to make once you know what pins to use.

Once you have that, you can use the "12V" cord that came with the 495. The units can handle up to 33 volts, if I remember correctly. I've been using this setup with multiple different Garmin models (Pilot III, 296, 495) for 10 years with no issues.

Firepilot...

Thanks...will look into, I have my xm radio plugged into the aux FM, but we do have 2 PSD machine receptacle plugs I can choose from. Will play around here once I get off contract over the winter months.

[email protected] said Why planning purposes only?

I've used the 296, 695 and now the Aera 550. Thought the 695 was a complete substitute for having to fly a panel with crap avionics. If your aircraft has a KLN-90, Trimble 2101, or UNS-1K, you don't want to be without a 695.

The 550 has that "touch screen" interface I prefer and is smaller and more portable, so more of a "backup", or something for a ferry trip or repo job.

296 you can't buy anymore. The screen looks dated compared to the 695 and 550, and the form factor goes against it.

And then somebody mentions the iPad.....
I see RAM is making mounts for boats, cars, etc. Anybody got it mounted in an aircraft yet? Readable screen, real long battery life, some good apps (BTW, when did "programs" become "apps"?). I've tried three or four, of which I like Foreflight best so far, but haven't exactly tried flying it as a substitute for another backup like the Garmin yet.