Any thoughts on Garmin GPSmap 96?

[fbrahic]

I'm considering buying a GPSmap 96 or 76s as my starter GPS. It will be
used exclusively for soaring, initially, near my home airport of
Hollister, CA and later for developing my cross country skills.

Does anyone have a GPSmap 96? If so, could you share some thoughts on
using it as a navigational aid for soaring?

Thanks!

[COLIN LAMB]

There is a review at
http://www.flyingmag.com/article.asp?section_id=17&article_id=512

For navigation, it is excellent. Garmin makes reliable, simple to use gps
handhelds.

The 96 does not tell you many things the soaring pilot wants, like speed to
glide. So, do not consider it a flight computer. It does a great job to
replace the sectional.

[ContestID67]

Nothing against Garmin but....

1) No turnpoint databases.
2) No speed to fly
3) No glide to finish
4) Thermal related details (history, etc)
5) Fairly large as it doesn't fit into the instrument panel.
6) No secure logging so it cannot be used for badges, records and
(50/50) for contests.
7) No winds aloft calculation

I know that it is a less expensive approach but basically this is a
power pilot's GPS, not a soaring pilot's GPS. It will get you from
here to there, but won't help you with badges, contests and records.

What are the alternatives? I suggest to people to use a Cambridge 302A
(302 is much better but more $$$$) and a PDA with Glide Navigator II.
That will set you back around $1200-$1500 depending on if you find
things used.

There is a new GPS and flight recorder coming on the market called the
EW Avionics microRecorder. It is $120 less (without sound recording)
than the Cambridge 302A and can be used as a standalone recorder with
its internal battery.

- John

[Jeremy Zawodny]

ContestID67 wrote:
> Nothing against Garmin but....
>
> 1) No turnpoint databases.

I put waypoints from the turnpoint exchange into my 76S every season.
What are you talking about?

> 2) No speed to fly

It's pretty clear the the original poster is just getting started, so
I'm not sure how important that is.

> 3) No glide to finish

My 76S gives me glide to any waypoint. I'm not sure where you got that
information either.

Jeremy

[Papa3]

If you search on "GPSMAP" in R.A.S., you'll find a number of threads
on this topic. To summarize one line of thought, the GPSMAP 76
provides everything you really need for initial XC and limited
competition flying (regionals and OLC) for a street price of under
$200. From there, you can:

a) Interface to your used glide computer (e.g. LNAV, LX, other) if you
have one.
b) Add a PDA running Winpilot, Glide Navigator, etc.

There's a lot of misinformation (such as the posting somewhere in this
thread) about what the GPSMAP can't do. Among other cool things, you
CAN:

- Upload turnpoints, waypoints, landpoints, etc.
- Assign different icons to different kinds of points.
- Create tasks
- Create arrival radius
- Log and download flights
- Give glide angle to a point
- Lots of other stuff that may or may not matter to you

However, it doesn't provide speeds to fly and some other important
features. It really depends on how much you want to spend; there are
some compormises.

Regards,

Erik Mann
LS818 P3

[Peter]

I bought one for my father to use in his glider (i also bought one for my
self) and we had a devil of a time getting its NMEA output to work to his
EW baraograph, in the end we had to send it back to Garmin in the UK for
them to work on it, seems that its a problem with these that Garmin won;t
publicly acknowledge but will fix if you badger them enough. Seems that
the serial output does not get driven unless it can sense a load on the
cable, and the EW doesn't provide enough load to get the signals to be
driven...(you can plug a PC serial port in and see the output no problem)
they fiddled with my dads system somehow and it works now...

I haven't had mine modified, but I also just bought a Lowrence AirMap 600c
and it seems to have as good a display if not a little better (bigger),
its $100 cheaper and a few more features that can be used by gliders
pilots (like acheived instantaneous glide angles and time to impact
terrain (which it also knows). it seems a little lower build quality but I
think it will work out better...

I may be happier with the Lowrence, but I haven't flow with it yet...

and I don;t know if it works to the EW either.. I'm in California and my
dad is in the Uk where the EW is too :-) ...

[fbrahic]

Thanks for all the good advice! I just picked up a slightly used Garmin
96 on ebay for the price of a new 76s, so hopefully that will get me
started nicely... Now I just have to learn how to use it.