More expensive than an iPad + software.
Less battery time.
Inferior software.
You will need a GDL50 for the ADSB as far as I know.
1) yes
2) no, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes in a future update.
3) yes
It has wifi and can update databases or firmware etc (which works very well) but you have to use your phone as a hotspot / have wifi in the hangar, etc.
1) You have to update your device every 28 days (AIRAC / menstrual cycle) because airspace also varies over time. Thus frequency updates should not be a problem. It is not for requesting a service. The essential need to know the TMA frequency for VFR is to request clearance to enter / transit the airspace.
2) You must have internet access on the ground during the planning phase, right? That’s when you get the NOTAMs.
3) That’s great!
1) No idea but these potentially vary all the time, don’t they? Or, as in the UK, they are either unpublished or you can’t tell who the owner is, or the owner doesn’t provide a service to VFR anyway.
2) Obviously not unless there is internet access, which needs a SIM card (in the general case)
3) Yes; to some extent, but only participating traffic (the usual debate of how many use this or that box).
Simple question for people using these products:
Can you view frequencies for upcoming TMAs and CTRs?
Can you view airspace established using NOTAMs?
Can you display traffic using an external receiver?
What surprises me – as per further back in this thread – is that Garmin find it worth making these, at the much lower volumes.
Or maybe the volumes are not that much lower but instead the GA media has been swept up in the “Ipad revolution” and thinks that everything else is dead, while those who don’t follow the crowd are happily buying these dedicated boxes which, as the above video shows, have a vastly better display in sunlight. They also have a vastly more reliable GPS. And they are vastly more foolproof, with dedicated buttons doing dedicated things, rather than the messy user interfaces on tablet apps which are crammed with features.
I’ve had an Aera 660 in the yoke for several years and find it brilliant. I have the Garmin Safetaxi on it. It “just works” and keeps working, with no funny business, no apps broken because they have been updated, or broken because they got updated but need a later version of the OS, etc. It does a very accurate and reliable GPWS function which is wired directly to the intercom.
If I was going to do this any other way I would buy an old Iphone, yoke mount it, and have it running Foreflight. From demos I have seen it does GPWS well, plus some other nice features. It should work ok if one doesn’t interact with it.
The 760 would be too big to yoke mount in many cases.
We’ve pretty much added a Garmin Aera 660 to every aircraft in our flying club’s fleet, either as a backup or primary navigation screen. The 660 was very well received by our members and some even use them for pre-flight purposes. On longer cross country trips I even load my FPL from Garmin Pilot into it to have a backup in case my iPad overheats. The syncing works pretty much out of the box :)
That new 760 might be a little bit too big for many smaller cockpits (it looks bigger than the 660), but will give it a try sooner or later.
