That's the second year in a row, right?
Yeah. Ironically enough, when they introduced the 496, I saw a guy complaining at the Garmin booth that he hadn't had his 396 very long. The Garmin rep's words were "What do we do EVERY year at Oshkosh? Come out with a new handheld. You should have known that." So now they've let me down twice.
The hot new Garmins this year are the G600 PFD/MFD.
Bah. I thought they were really cool when they came out, but the Aspen system is WAY cooler - And "hot new" generally doesn't apply to something that was announced two years ago. That's called "vaporware."
Nope. I'm going to look at the B/K AV8OR GPS and find out how much the XM WX add-on is for it. I bet it's not gonna be much cheaper than the 496, but we'll see.
Actually, the whole package costs about half what the 496 costs. Garmin needs to make a move, and FAST, before they lose a massive chunk of market share.
Well, I'm here. I guess I will check them out. Zulu seems like the main buzz here. That and the lower turnout. "fuel prices, no doubt."
Huh? Buzz about lower turnout? I not only didn't hear anyone say a thing of that sort, but my impression of the turnout of GA airplanes in the north 40 is that it was the same as last year. Last year I was in row 574, this year I was in 580. Given that there were some small areas blocked off this year due to soft ground, I put that about equal.
Anyone know what time the vendor tents close down? 8 pm?
No, it shuts down about at the end of the air show, IIRC.
Not even that - The exhibit hangars close their doors at 5 PM, and stop letting people in about 15 minutes prior to that. Most of the in/out setups (Garmin, Lightspeed, etc. that have an indoor booth linked to an outdoor tent) close then as well. The airplane manufacturers may stay open a little later at their own discretion, but most don't last much past 5. The airshow, however, lasts until 6 or even a little after except for Sunday.
Do please report back on that, Tim- I am very impressed with the apparent value of the Av8or (XM add-on about $400-ish), but as is so often teh case, reality may be very different.
Let us know how bright the screen is, how usable it is with the touch screen (does it require the stylus?), etc.
Also, anything at all like taxi diagrams (assumed no, because they have not bragged about 'em).
Looks like the total package will cost about 1/2 what the 496 will. Touch screen is a BIG improvement, but no multi-touch: There's still zoom buttons depicted on-screen. The neatest thing is that you can display ALL the data fields, and they're in a movable tape down the left side so you can easily slide to the one(s) you want to see. The order of the data fields is configurable to facilitate that.
The interface seems to be a bit dumbed-down - It doesn't show you EVERYTHING with a single tap, you have to kind of navigate to get the details. I also don't like the whole two-box idea - Ick. More wires running everywhere.
Apparently there were a lot of iPhone owners checking it out - Trying to swipe to switch screens, pinch to zoom, etc.
Seems pretty cool, but I didn't check out the auto features, adding/removing content, etc. Oh yeah - You can play MP3's and movies on it. Some guy bought 5 of them the first day - One with the weather box, the rest for the kids to watch movies on.
I won't be buying it any time soon - I'll wait for Garmin's response. And it better freakin' be good. I want my touchscreen (which I was asking for long before this King box), and a remote, and a faster processor (screen redraws on the map page of the 496 are painfully slow), and a reasonable price tag (ie, do all of the above in a single box and for $1500). Then I'll buy it.
