I have a chance to pick up a slightly used Garmin 196 for a great price from another pilot. Ive been eyeing the 296 but I am just using it for rentals and eventually I'll mount it in my experimental when it get's back up and I think the 296 would be way more than what I could use. Anybody have any cons about the 196 before I buy it?

AvidFlyer wrote:I have a chance to pick up a slightly used Garmin 196 for a great price from another pilot. Ive been eyeing the 296 but I am just using it for rentals and eventually I'll mount it in my experimental when it get's back up and I think the 296 would be way more than what I could use. Anybody have any cons about the 196 before I buy it?

I have a 196 in my 170B and have used a 295 while flying a friend's
early C-180. My thoughts:

The 196 is great bang for the buck
The display refresh rate is noticably faster on the 196 than the 295
The color on the 295 is nice....
There are things the 196 can do that the 295 can't (no doubt, there
are also things the 295 can do that the 196 can't....).

I bought my 196 new for $850 and at the time, a 295 was darned near
$1K more. I figured a thousand clams more was a lot of money for a
color display.... I've since paid for a few database upgrades for the 196
and am still happy with it. It has worked flawlessly, the display is
easily viewed in all conditions (dark/night, bright sun-light, etc.)
and it gets me where I want to go. One final parting thought is the
batteries *should* last longer on a 196 than a 295, as the latter's
color display will eat up batteries greedily. No big deal if you're piped
into ship's power like I am, but there it is....

The only con I can think of with the 196 is, well... it ain't color....
If you must have a color display, buy a 295 (or 396).

The 196 will do just fine. There are even times when the black and white display is better. Save the money and spend it on gas to go flying with.

I have the 196 and love it . It does last longer on battery with a quicker refresh rate than the color. I use it in my pickup and plane. I use it in my 170 for situational awareness with it sitting on the top of the panel above the HSI. I am disappointed that is seems the batteries go low even when on plane current and I always carry backup batteries.

John

I have a 196 and like it very much. I couldn't justify the cost of the 296 to myself or my better half. Colors nice, but if I want to see that I just look out the window. I try to avoid flying over the mountains at night anyway so the color terrain feature is lost on me, otherwise the 196 has all the features of the 296 and one or two more. I even have the 196 running on airplane power and interfaced with my JPI fuel totalizer, it makes fuel management a breeze. I'd actually recommend the combo of these two units before I'd recommend the 296 or even the 396. You can put the JPI 450 and the 196 in the plane for about $1200.

The money I saved buying the 196 paid for two trips to Idaho.

John, I believe the 196 will use a little power even when it's powered down, mine does the same thing, as my plane doesn't supply power to it unless the master switch is on, so I have to replace the batteries once or twice a year.

If you own a boat, then you have one more reason to buy the 196.

If you can get a good deal on the 196 I would go for it. If the price isn't much better than market price I would give consideration to the 296. I know some people prefer the B/W display, but I find I can discern map features better on the color display. And especially if you fly around mountainous terrain the terrain avoidance page is highly useful. I fly primarily around coastal flatlands and I use the terrain avoidance page routinely to identify towers.

I bought my 296 from Gulf Coast Avionics as a used unit. They take trades in from guys who have to have the latest/greatest. My unit was in like new condition with all accessories and a factory warranty. Price I think was around $1100 and I had the power lead hardwired through a dedicated breaker. It does a great job keeping the battery topped off, so in the event I did lose DC I would still get another 4 hrs. I mounted mine with a RAM mount on top of the panel, but if you have room in your panel the Panel Dock is pretty sweet.

Just some thoughts...

Thanks for all the input guys. I went ahead and grabbed this one for $600 and it came with a custom made power cord, every RAM mount available for it, all the original packaging, and a current database. Sounds like it'll be a good unit.

I have a 196 in my Bulldog. When wearing sunglasses the display is almost impossible to see. Also I really don't care for Garmin's menu based operating system on any of their GPS - but there is not much else to choose from.

Nigel

Lithium batteries have five times the life of a regular battery and work much better when it's cold. You usually won't find them with other battery stocks but are located in the electronics section of stores.

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