February 2006 - American Bonanza Society

THE GARMIN GPSMAP 396THE "SWISS ARMY KNIFE" OF THEHANDHELD ELECTRONICS INDUSTRYrom Thanksgiving through Christmas I was given anopportunity by Garlnin to evaluate their latest handheldGPS-the GPSMAP 396. I had been prepared by a visitto the AOPA convention in Tampa and the National BusinessAviation Association convention in Orlando to not be particularlydazzled by Garmin's latest entry in the handheld GPSworld. But boy, was I mistaken!As [ have mentioned in previous articles, there was oncea time when an avionics manufacturer could introduce a newproduct to their dealer members at the Aircraft ElectronicsAssociation's national convention, and then to the flying publicat Sun ' n Fun, and get a whole year of "newest and best"hype out there.Later, I observed that a manufacturer was lucky to get onefree show and press release before another manufacturer hadsomething that was "newer and better." Now, due to the rapidadvances in display and memory technology, manufacturerscan retool their devices overnight. They can add display andsoftware changes to your handheld avionics in the comfort ofyour own home via the Internet.The Garmin 396 and some by other manufacturers haveso much memory and computing capability packed into theirdevices that there is no need to ever box them up and sendthem back to the factory for updates. The latest updates are asnear as your keyboard!Anyway, as a result of trying to get semi-literate with the396, plus configuring my new photo cell phone, plus trying tounderstand my wife's new automobile with heated memoryseats and pedals, plus trying to add a new fax/printer/scannerto my computer, I spent nearly the entire holidays readingguidebooks and installation manuals. Where did the good olddays go when all we had to do was assemble a new tricycle onChristmas Eve?I finally got so overwhelmed by so much technology, that Ichucked the whole thing and flew wi th a friend up to FernandinaBeach, Florida, to fl y with my son in his new (to him) '73 Citabria.That airplane had a comm radio, a stick, two rudder pedals, heelbrakes. a fixed-pitch propeller-and not much else.My son offered me the front seat, but I declined. I did notwant to have any instruments, even an airspeed indicator, to haveto look a1. And it was wonderful ! I was tempted to pull my trusty396 out of the pouch on my belt and select the "panel page" thatfeatures a graphic horizontal situation indicator, grounds peed,altitude, venical speed and a rate-of-turn indicator to see if Icou ld "fly instruments" on the 396.I didn't do that, but I'm convinced I could have if I had wantedto. I was having too much fun controlling the airplane by visualreference to the horizon on a beautiful clear day, and controllingmy airspeed by listening to the sou nd of the air rushing pastthe fuselage and wing struts, Don't ask about my landings.There's a good reason why Walter Beech put the little wheel infront when he designed the Bonanza!Controlling the airplane "on instruments" by reference tothe 396 is only one of its mind-boggling tricks. One of myavionics customers bought a 396 for his '97 Bonanza, whichalready has a Garmin 530 panel mount, a Garmin 330 mode-Stransponder, a Bendix/King comm and nav with glides lope, aKFC-225 autopilot with altitude capture and hold, and a 1000series stonnscope.I' ve since had an opportunity to fly a trip with him thatinvolved punching through a line of frontal weather stretchingfrom about Birmingham, Alabama, to east of Athens, Georgia.As the sky went from clear to cloudy to gray to darker in spots,he got out his trusty 396, snapped it into his pilot's yokemount, placed the XM Satellite antenna on the glares hield andfired it up.In a few minutes, the 396 indicated it was receivingNEXRAD weather. The weather band indicated some pink andred areas ahead, imbedded in yeUow and green rain indications.Our first thoughts were we'd have to deviate a long wayto the east to avoid fl yi ng through the serious stuff. However,the longer we looked at the NEXRAD picture, and watchedthree or four updates about five minutes apart, we saw the systemwas moving and changing, with a few narrow gaps whereonly green (lighter) areas were opening and closing.Exomples of popup ond ponel displays on Ihe 396,