Well, they did it. The Garmin 496 will be introduced at EAA Airventure next week.

For those of us who got so excited about the 196, it may be time to upgrade.

MTV

Got a bunch of promo emails from various places I buy stuff like sporty's, aircraft spruce, gulf coast avionics, ect about the 496 yesterday. It's going for $2795 and already available. Looks like it does some even cooler stuff than the 396. I think I'll stick with my 196 for a while longer

I think I'll stick with my 196 for a while longer

AMEN.

Heck, my GPS III Pilot is still working just fine. Three-grand can go a long way towards fuel, maintenance, BW's, a Sako Tikka in .338WM or.....

YELLOWMAULE wrote:Heck, my GPS III Pilot is still working just fine. Three-grand can go a long way towards fuel, maintenance, BW's, a Sako Tikka in .338WM or.....

Mmmm....Tikka T3 Varmint .308. <snap out of drooling mode>
For those of us who don't yet have a handheld GPS (Other than my eTrex) this could be a good unit. I overheard John or Doug or somebody talking about a guy at Smiley Creek who had the doppler returns right on his 396 screen and was able to give them an idea of the duration of some TS. I think there's a lot to be said for that when in an area where cell phones don't work. I like the idea of higher resolution terrain too.

If any of you guy's know someone at a Garmin OEM. Garmin has a program where an employee can buy one Garmin handheld at less than the OEM cost. It must be purchased by the employee on his credit card and shipped to the employee's home. There is of course a form that has to be filled out, but it's a lot cheaper than you can get it any other way.

Here it is...

This is the taxiway view