Aera 660

[Kent Wien]

Mine is in the back seat had wired to a Garmin 375. Nice to have something to look at when you’re in the back.

 

[Atypicalguy]

660 is great. I have it mounted on a cradle on a ball screwed to the A pillar in my 140. It is wired to a gtr200b radio and pushes frequencies into standby; that is the main way I tune my radio. Fantastic unit. I need a gdl to feed it attitude eand adsb data so I can get traffic on it. I have a 760 for the copilot spot in the 185. These things integrate really well with other Garmin stuff and are a lot of functionality for the dollar. Aera is for flying. Ipad for planning.

 

[EdB]

Really like the 660. Have it mounted to the front window pillar. Directly connected to a GDL-52 for XM weather & traffic.

 

[ShaneWhite]

I know this thread is a year old, but I wanted to chime-in because I have both an Aera 660 and an Aera 760, and this is the right thread to do it. These are both current Garmin units, and new firmware just came out this month for them which fixes a couple bugs.

I also have a Garmin GDL-51 - which adds Sirius XM Satellite music and weather to these units (as well as my iPad mini)

The GDL 51 Sirius XM receiver has the hard-wired data power cable P/N 010-11686-40 interface to both units, and the Aeras are also both hard wired with their respective "bare wire" harnesses.
It all meets in a plastic junction box, which is two-sided taped under my panel (3M auto body tape) and a cigarette lighter pluy powers the whole thing..so it's not "hard wired" to ships power permanently.

I can control the XM music with the Aera's, and I use the XM satellite weather extensively on both Aeras when the weather gets sketchy. I'm using an Air Gizmos mount for the Aera 660 in the center stack...and the 760 is normally mounted on the R yoke. We run an iPad mini on the L yoke.

What I like about the Aera 660/760 units:

They don't overheat and shut-down like the iPad
The screen is bright
Those are honestly the top two reasons...sometimes I cannot see the iPad mini, then it shuts down becuase the sun is hitting it and the cockpit is hot.

Continuing on...they both have a Garmin interface. So it's feel and workflow is just like the big 750 in my center stack. Why not just add the Garmin GDL 69A to feed XM weather and music to my GTN750xi? I could...but that unit is over $6,000! Plus installation. I get the exact same weather with these portables for much cheaper.

These units can send flight plans and changes to my flight plan to my panel mounted GTN750xi and vice-versa through the FlightStream 510.

Enroute, if there is any weather to monitor, I keep XM RADAR on the 660. In good weather, I keep the nearest airports on the 660 so I can use the 750 for moving map. In mountainous areas at night, it makes a great dedicated terrain display. I also use the 660 to control my Sirius XM music channels.

Dislikes:

The screen resolution on the 660 is good; on the 760, it's pixelly...when comparing to an iPad, its not nearly as good...but it is super bright. With that stated, I'll take a pixelly bright display I can see over a high-resolution one (iPad) that I cannot see in bright sunlight.

These units cannot file, activate, amend, or close a flight plan. At all. You need an iPad to do that or use the phone. You can connect them to WiFi (or your phone) on the ground to get internet weather if desired

These only allow one bluetooth connection. I connect them to my Flightstream 510's Bluetooth (Streaming card added to my GTN750xi used for WiFi database updates and Bluetooth connections to other devices) so they get traffic. That's why I went with the hard-wire for the XM to the GDL51. If I were to use the bluetooth to the GDL 51, then they could not get traffic.

These units have nowhere near the full capability of Foreflight. But the interface just works...and works identically to Garmin certified avionics.

Sadly, an iPad remains necessary. I dream of the day someone builds an aviation grade "hardened" iPad with a bright screen that doesn't overheat. Plus I also use Garmin pilot (on my iPad) to stream and log engine data to my iPad from my GI-275 EIS. I'll be sending it to Saavy for analysis. Spotting an impending engine issue on a piston single through data analysis is not a bad idea, and it is amazing for us to have that ability on a bugsmasher, just like the airlines do.

If your avionics shop balks add putting portables in a panel in a certified aircraft, use Policy statement letter PS-ACE-23-01 titled "Subject: PS-ACE-23-01; Installation of Mounting Devices and Wiring Integration for Attachment of Portable Displays and Electronic Devices in Normal, Utility, and Acrobatic Category Airplanes" dated 6/18/2012 - which should be easy to find with a quick Google search. That document even allows hard-wiring to ships power; my shop would not do it, thus my use of the cigarette lighter plug. My wires are also retained with Velcro straps instead of zip ties. It's all little "kludges" like that which shops sometimes use to make everything "temporary" to keep the regulators happy.

Here is my Aera 660 in my 1991 Socata Tobago:

 

[AK737pilot]

These units can send flight plans and changes to my flight plan to my panel mounted GTN750xi and vice-versa through the FlightStream 510.

That must be a FlightStream thing? From what in understand, a hardwired (RS-232) Aera would NOT be able to make flight plan changes to a panel mounted Garmin GPS. Is your 660 hard wired to your 750?

I have a GPS 175 ready for install and was planning on hard wiring it to my panel mounted 660 to display map info, unfortunately it’s a one-way connection. If I could use a FlightStream, that would be cool. The 175 screen is small. I would love to have the 660 be an extension of the interface.

 

[Alien Mind]

That must be a FlightStream thing? From what in understand, a hardwired (RS-232) Aera would NOT be able to make flight plan changes to a panel mounted Garmin GPS. Is your 660 hard wired to your 750?

I have a GPS 175 ready for install and was planning on hard wiring it to my panel mounted 660 to display map info, unfortunately it’s a one-way connection. If I could use a FlightStream, that would be cool. The 175 screen is small. I would love to have the 660 be an extension of the interface.

Do NOT need a flight stream with our lower cost Garmin units (mine's the 355, same as yours but with com). Both the Aera 660 and your 175 have a feature called connext - Bluetooth from one to t'other easily - I have my Aera 660 in a dock under my 355 and the combo is terrific!

 

[Alien Mind]

 

[MooneyDriver78]

My G3X sends flight plan to my 660 (hardwired) and my GTN, I connect iPhone via Bluetooth to the G3X which will populate plan it receives from my phone. I use the 660 Bluetooth connection to connect to my GDL 50R. I think it will only handle 1 wired and 1 Bluetooth connection.
The G3X and 660 have a very similar user interface, they work well together. The 660 acts as a poor mans MFD as well as a battery backup for the G3X.

 

[AK737pilot]

Do NOT need a flight stream with our lower cost Garmin units (mine's the 355, same as yours but with com). Both the Aera 660 and your 175 have a feature called connext - Bluetooth from one to t'other easily - I have my Aera 660 in a dock under my 355 and the combo is terrific!

OK!! That's sweet.
So the plan is:

GPS175 -> RS232 (MapMX) -> Aera 660 to display the magenta line
GPS175 -> Bluetooth Connext -> Aera 660 for bi-directional flight plan sharing.

Correct?

 

[ShaneWhite]

That must be a FlightStream thing? From what in understand, a hardwired (RS-232) Aera would NOT be able to make flight plan changes to a panel mounted Garmin GPS. Is your 660 hard wired to your 750?

I have a GPS 175 ready for install and was planning on hard wiring it to my panel mounted 660 to display map info, unfortunately it’s a one-way connection. If I could use a FlightStream, that would be cool. The 175 screen is small. I would love to have the 660 be an extension of the interface.

On my GTN750, I needed the FlightStream 510 (or a hard wire) for that feature. As mentioned by the other poster, some newer Garmin units have Connext built in for wireless transfers.

 

[asicer]

So the plan is:

GPS175 -> RS232 (MapMX) -> Aera 660 to display the magenta line
GPS175 -> Bluetooth Connext -> Aera 660 for bi-directional flight plan sharing.

Correct?

For some reason, at least with the earlier pre-4.0 firmware (don't know about the latest 4.21), an Aera 660 would not get AHRS data from a GNX375/GTX345 over wired RS232 Connext but Bluetooth Connext could. I think flight plan sharing did work, but it's been a while.

 

[AK737pilot]

Ok, thanks. I'm not too concerned with having AHRS anyway. This will all be part of a Dynon Skyview HDX which has its own backup D30 instrument.

 

[Katamarino]

A bit off topic, but…

My 2007 Sky Arrow is still aviating along with its now-quite-dated Garmin 496:

The plane was delivered with a AirGizmo dock, prewired for the unit. It is the sole navigation radio for my plane, backed up with my iPhone. I’m kind of waiting for it to take a dump and hoping the Aera 660 will fit in the spot - with an appropriate dock, of course.

I, too, like the faux HSI, and have a descent profile set in that provides a faux “glideslope” as well!

Don't know if you've done this change or not but I can confirm it fits. I swapped a 496 in a dock for a 660 - easy change out of the docks with just 4 bolts.

 

[FastEddieB]

Don't know if you've done this change or not but I can confirm it fits. I swapped a 496 in a dock for a 660 - easy change out of the docks with just 4 bolts.

Thanks. But my ancient 496 is still getting the job done.

 

[Alien Mind]

OK!! That's sweet.
So the plan is:

GPS175 -> RS232 (MapMX) -> Aera 660 to display the magenta line
GPS175 -> Bluetooth Connext -> Aera 660 for bi-directional flight plan sharing.

Correct?

yes, but.... Don't actually need the RS232! Bluetooth via the built in Connext works both ways; it'll transfer the flight plan and show the magenta line too. If you also want weather/traffic displayed on the Aera, you can wirelessly connect it to a standalone ADSB in source (it will NOT get that data from a Garmin built in transponder, if that's the case, PERHAPS the RS232 would help, but that is outside my knowledge.

 

[MooneyDriver78]

yes, but.... Don't actually need the RS232! Bluetooth via the built in Connext works both ways; it'll transfer the flight plan and show the magenta line too. If you also want weather/traffic displayed on the Aera, you can wirelessly connect it to a standalone ADSB in source (it will NOT get that data from a Garmin built in transponder, if that's the case, PERHAPS the RS232 would help, but that is outside my knowledge.

Aera only makes 1 Bluetooth connection, so it’s either flight plan transfer or ADSB, so yes a RS232 connection if you want both.

 

[Alien Mind]

Aera only makes 1 Bluetooth connection, so it’s either flight plan transfer or ADSB, so yes a RS232 connection if you want both.

yes, but... I connect to the gnc355 via the one Bluetooth connection AND to the adsb via built in wifi