mtv wrote:Good Grief!!!!

How about we all just do our best NOT to fly anywhere we shouldn't be and as Zane says, we won't have to worry about the negatives????



MTV

No doubt....
I have met several spray pilots that disable the data logging on thier bazzillion $$$ gps in paranoia of who will want to see it... The only time someone important wanted to see mine was after a bogus complaint and the data made it a quick open and shut deal....

So was getting the 296 the right deal in the end? I thought it was purely a personal financial decision but would have added that the 1K$ 496 made a better "back up" for the other gps because in the event that the "primary" 396 failed you could have plugged the xm into the back of the 496 and still had Wx... The Wx antenna has it's own ID and doesn't care what gps it's sending it's data to... I am assuming that the Wx is a pretty valuable feature when you are on longer ferries in your work planes... Don't think this concept worked with your "tablet" tho...

Take care, Rob

Whenever I get very far south at all, like south of Cuba, there is no XM signal. Yes the XM can work with the tablet as I have a bluetooth receiver for it, but I don't carry it for the above reason.
I'm real happy with the 296. I don't have any need for "safe taxi" as I just don't usually take crop dusters to large international airports and as nearly as I can tell the 296 is identical to the 396, just missing the XM. I wasn't aware that the antenna was the component with the serial ID #, pretty cool that way, because you can have a spare GPS with XM as long as it isn't the antenna that broke.
When you get at the fringe area for XM, be cautious of what the Wx will display. You don't lose it all at once. For some reason you lose radar imagery well before you lose lightning strikes, so if your XM is displaying lightning strikes, but no radar image or satellite data, there may be thunderstorms ahead.