I've had my Garmin 396 for just shy of three years now. For the first year it lived suction cup mounted on the left side of the windshield, pretty much right in front of my face. The view of the screen was perfect, but wires in the cockpit just drive me ape shit, so at annual time I freed up some panel space and installed the AirGizmo mount.

Asthetically it is fantastic. Perfectly neat and clean, and all the wires hidden out of sight. But now that eyeballs are getting old, and distance (or close-up) is not my friend, it can cause problems. And during daylight hours the glare can make the screen unreadable. However, at night it's absolutely beautiful and works just like it's supposed to.

Point of this long story is... Does any one else have simular issues with the mount? Do the snap on glare visors help any? I'm about to rip the 396 out and go back to the suction cup and wires, and superglue my 8 track player into the AirGizmo space on the panel.

Gump

I just went the other way, having put in the gizmo dock. I suffer from the same old man arms length blurrovision and have to have cheaters on standby at all times anything up close needs scrutiny. This includes reading sectionals which pisses me off the most. So far, the panel dock is ok and I don't have the reflection from my t-shirt in the screen like when it was on the yoke mount. Also, having the garmin on ships power eliminates battery charge problems. Guess I did'nt really answer your question.

I never used the yoke mount, but just parked the PropellerHead suction mount on the windshield a bit forward of the left post. Any glare or reflection issues and I could reach up and tilt the whole unit to eliminate the problem. With the panel mount I get glare from the sunlight, and also reflection from the backside of the yokes and the material from the passenger seat. Drives me nuts.

Gump

Gump, I mount mine with a RAM suction cup mount exactly where you describe. There are only two wires needed for me . Power and the XM antenna. The post antenna works fine for me, and I've flown from Tuk to south of the equator with it there. I've contemplated the air Gizmo dock, but like the position of the suction cup.
Whenever I mount either a Sat-Loc or Agnav etc. in the panel, I ensure it's mounted deep to decrease glare. They are both large screens when compared to the Garmin. I think you can fashion a cardboard hood and mount it with tape. If that works it should be easy to fab one out of Rhinolite if one can't be bought. I'd try a home made hood before I chunked it.

Would this thing help? http://www.airgizmos.com/prod/pd7/index.asp

I too installed an AirGizmo, after going through the same deal with a yoke mounted 396. As it happens, that distance (from my eyes to the middle of the panel) is pretty close to my optimal close vision (without near vision correction). So, it worked out near perfect for me...the 396 is in full view, and I can see outside just fine as well.

MTV

My AirGizmo is mounted in the lower panel on the 170B, to the left of the control column, where radios normally go. It sucks for a passenger to see, but for the pilot it works really well. I bought the optional mount that angles it upward, just like the one A64 posted above. I don't know if that would help though, as it's only a little closer, but it's dead on in front of you.



Maybe you could use that angle adapter and build a big extension dong that protrudes like 10" out of the panel toward you.

My big gripe is the inability to read through the glare, not the distance. And down here in the center of the blue R airspace universe, I've really come to love seeing the fine detail of the moving map on the 396.

I'll experiment with some visors and see how they do.

Gump

You have the screen brightness cranked up? I've found that maxing out the backlight/brightness helps for daytime viewing.

Oh Yeah... Full blast. And same with the volume for the XM (now Sirius) radio!!!!!!!!!!!

Gump

I put in the angle adapter and it solved my problems of viewing with glare. Its only 24 bucks if you dont like it.

Now my right-seaters gripe.