I am thinking of getting a Garmin 696 and was wondering if anybody has one and if so how well the terrain maps work in Alaska. Would you trust it in the mountains?

I bought mine about 1 yr ago. I can't talk about AK, but I trust it down here in the Sierra Nevada. It takes a while to figure out where the features are that you want to use, but it is a a great unit. This is my 3rd Garmin, and they are a good company that supports their products.

The database updates are pretty expensive, and they started a policy of expiring the update subscription by time, even if you didn't download it. That pissed me off, so I started looking at the Anywhere SST. I think the Garmin is much less complex to use than the SST, so I'll just pay the higher price for the updates.

The airport updates are fast, but the chart updates take a lot of time. The best I have achieved is about 30 mins using a high speed connection at work. My cable connection at home takes over an hour to download and install the approach plate updates. Many times it takes a dump, and I have to start over. The file size is almost 700 MB.

They ding you for every bit of data: Airport data, approach plates, taxi diagrams, obstacles.... You name it, and they will charge you for it.

All in all, I like the unit and love the on board wx. It has allowed me to complete at least a dozen flights by showing me tops, direction and speed of thunderheads. Just talking to FSS or Flight Service would have put me down for a while.

BTW, you an put your topo maps on a SD card, and the unit recognizes them. I have mine set to show the topo lines at the 5 mile scale. The terrian view ties in very well with the te topo maps.

Hope this helps.

No way i was going to spend the ridiculous amounts that Garmin charges. So I went with these folks. I have the FL190.

http://www.aviationsafety.com/flight_cheetahfl190.html

Here's their video tutorial on the various features.

http://www.aviationsafety.com/tutorial/index.html

It does a lot more than the 696 and the updates cost $298 a year. Plus, since it has wifi built in, when you're sitting at Johnson Creek you have your computer.

I've looked into the True Flight/Cheetah stuff and instead of retyping the info, I'll just post the link:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/s ... hp?t=17727

There a reason why Garmin is #1, and why more people trust it in all types of situations. And yes, the Jepp subscriptions are pricey, and for VFR only it may not make sense to spend the extra $$$. But for IFR, it's well worth the extra $$$. There's no other company I'd blindly put my faith into.

That's all old information and none of it is pertinent to today.

1.) It's not a hard drive anymore but solid state, no worries about hard drives crashing at altitude.

2.) Boot time. Same as the 496 I got rid of.

3.) OS. It uses a stripped down version of XP. They say it runs many times faster than the regular XP. I have no way to verify that other than to say it does run a lot faster.

4.) Brightness. I wish it was better but it's the same as the 296 I used to have.

When i bought mine it was the same cost as a 496 and therefore much cheaper than the 696. Updating is simpler than the Garmin. All update data downloads to a memory stick. Put the memory stick into the FL190 and click update. That's it. It's nice to have the georeferenced sectionals. Two button pushes and you're there. The Garmins don't have that.

Thanks for the update BM. It's nice to know that they have addressed some of the older problems.

I have had mine in Alaska and the mountain part works good. See some photos in this video http://vimeo.com/5719998 showing it in action. The xm music and weather did not work so much, (that was 2008), maybe they do now??

I had a 496, and I like some things better and some things not so much. I would not go back to the 496 though.

Never mind about that video, I just watched it, and the gps in the photos is a Bendix King. I had the 696 in the plane, but it is in front of the pilot.

To me the biggest drawback is when you are moving the pointer to somewhere else on the screen, it goes into "drawing" mode and that can take up to a minute or so, which can be a "long" minute when in bad situations. I would rate it a 8 out of a perfect 10 and the 496 a 7 maybe.

I tried the 696, AV80R-ACE, Flight Cheetah

Ending up with the flight cheetah with HITS is is magic and very inexpensive to update. Has all the plates and charts. The only problem I have had is booting up XM and GPS at same time freaks it out, I am sending it back this week the factory thinks its my XM box but want it all on there bench.

My only other complaint is I wish it was brighter, other than that I feel its one of the best bangs for the buck you can buy. My plan is to buy updates for it instead of the 530W

patrol guy wrote:The xm music and weather did not work so much, (that was 2008), maybe they do now??

That's an XM limitation, has nothing to do with the hardware.

mr scout wrote:I tried the 696, AV80R-ACE, Flight Cheetah

Ending up with the flight cheetah with HITS is is magic and very inexpensive to update. Has all the plates and charts. The only problem I have had is booting up XM and GPS at same time freaks it out, I am sending it back this week the factory thinks its my XM box but want it all on there bench.

My only other complaint is I wish it was brighter, other than that I feel its one of the best bangs for the buck you can buy. My plan is to buy updates for it instead of the 530W

When I got mine the first thing I did was to place both the GPS program and the weather program in the startup folder so they both start when you hit the power button. Never had an issue with one or the other program hanging up.

I have a 696, in fact I kind of designed my panel around it (experiemental - Rans S-7S). I think Garmin is just the shiznit in some respects, and in others, I think they really have their head buried in a hole - probably their own.

I would love to try out the Cheetah. I love the idea of being able to add an actual AHRS to the system for attitude info should my judgement fail me (e.g. the judgement to be out flying when I would need it). I think it also looks like an amazing little unit, and it's priced great. Lots of good reviews here. I would love to get some time with those units.

I have few benchmarks except my old Magellan POS. I had a 496, have flown w/ the 530/530 and some time in a G1000

696 Overall - I love the unit. That's got to partly because I paid all that money for it, but it does the job very well. Its got a big screen, has more of the navigation speed/ease of the G1000 (due to the multifunction knob/wheel/button/joystick). The weather is great, immediate to access without much button pushing - as is waypoint, XM radio and other stuff. If I had to guess, I would say that overall it's probably low pilot workload to access common critical info than the tablet PC-based units like the Cheeta, but I have no personal experience with that. I also like that you can have the "panel" page and other stuff on without ever leaving the moving map. I think the Cheetah does that too.

The scrolling on screen to pan the map is annoying as John says.

The one thing I would pause with, is that every PC I have has an issue at some point. Some probably because I am loading all sorts of different software on and stuff. That wouldn't be the case with the Cheetah, so maybe its not an issue. But I just somehow get a little nervous using Windows, PC, and primary navigation device all int he same sentance.

But the GPS is my primary instrument in a way. I have no VOR or other radio nav aid. My iphone works good as a back up GPS in a pinch. But I think its hard to knock a garmin for good old reliability. Its gonna work.

The updating is part of the head in a hole part. It's rediculous considering how good they do everything else.

I also wanted an easily removable in-panel mounting system, meanin Air Gizmo - I had I think the 3rd one out of their mold.

If I had to do over again, I think I would play with each unit for one hour. Set up a typical cross country simulate flight and "fly it" - e.g. go through all the things you find yourself doing durin a flight, or that you think you will.

Here are some pics of mine mounted.

oh my, that is nice. Has Greg seen those blue lights?

Oh yeah. He saw the results before I did. Greg wired my headset plugs, and helped mount my windshield. Long story.


That Swingle guy gets around.

Thanks guys, that helps a lot. I have been using Garmins for years and have always been happy, I think I will get the 696. the problem I see is that it looks like it will make flying so easy my passengers will no longer be impressed with my awesome navigation skills.

You're right about those passengers thoughts on the navigation skills, but you can always baffle them with BS. And think how impressed they will be that you know how to use it.