Peter wrote:
It can be wired into the aircraft intercom properly, so you get the audio via the headset.So can a tablet if you have an aux audio connector.
Also a G496 has a decent GPS – unlike any tablet. For example my Ipad2 loses a fix easily in almost any plane I have used it in. Also a G496 has an external antenna socket so it can be wired to a rooftop antenna.Good point.
So can a tablet if you have an aux audio connector.
Sure, but which “tablet” can be mounted in a TB20 (or any well equipped IFR aircraft) where it doesn’t get in the way and just keeps working.
The nearest one could get to this functionality with a retail tablet would be some hack whereby a small tablet (even the Ipad Mini is too big) is yoke mounted, carefully wired up with a USB power cable and a 3.5mm audio cable (and these cables will stick out of the end, another 2cm or so) is hacked to auto start the required apps, to disable the touch screen, to disable the various popups like OS and app updates (I guess you could achieve that by disabling mobile data and wifi) and is provided with a GPS repeater. And it will probably still shut down when it gets sunshine directly on it and in a hot cockpit – most tablets do that regardless of brand.
The dedicated aviation units are still way the best for this dedicated-function job. I fully understand why the aviation GPS business has been virtually killed by the consumer tablets: convergence of aviation and non-aviation applications. Like the convergence of a phone and a camera and a social media client which for most people is what drives smartphones.
I would be really interested to know if the G496 works properly for UK Class A in the latest firmware update, otherwise would ask the same question for the 500 or 550 units mentioned in the other thread.
I guess most of the aviation units have become redundant with the phone and tablets offerings available today. Nevertheless in terms of quality and often durability they still are great boxes.
Also with panel mounts they can convert avionic museums into very usable and attractive VFR panels or even provide good supplemental ND or in some cases EFBs for IFR.
Peter wrote:
ure, but which “tablet” can be mounted in a TB20 (or any well equipped IFR aircraft) where it doesn’t get in the way and just keeps working.
I would choose a modern phone, not a tablet, as a yoke mount. A regular iPhone has a screen larger than the 496 but is thinner, shorter and less wide, and a “phablet” will have a larger screen still, while still being smaller and lighter than 496. My current phone, an iPhone 6 (not plus) has a screen size of 115mm x 58mm, versus the GPSMAP 496 whose screen is 81mm x 53mm, but at the same time my iPhone 6’s overall dimensions is smaller than the 496 at 135 × 65 × 7, versus 145 × 81 × 48). The GPS performs very well, it’s a dual GPS and GLONASS receiver and will get a lock from an aisle seat on an airliner which none of the aviation handhelds I’ve owned have ever been able to manage. You need only one cable (power) if you use a Bluetooth audio hub for audio out, and you can tuck the BT audio hub out the way.
I tend to use my iPad as the primary ‘portable navigator’, an iPad 3 I put on my lap where I used to carry a folded chart (I still carry paper charts, but they usually live in a seat pocket). Perhaps I’m blessed but I’ve never had a single instance of my iPad shutting down in direct sunshine. Last month I flew 25 hours with my iPad – much of it in Texas and Louisiana which by May are already as hot as hell, in a Grumman Tiger (which has a lot of glass area) and the iPad just kept on trucking – as did my smart phone. Also my iPad’s GPS (it’s an iPad 3, not a 2) outperforms the performance of the prior generation of aviation handhelds, I can get a GPS fix from the aisle seat on an airliner. It doesn’t lose GPS lock in a light aircraft.
It can be done. iPad mini on a RAM Mount in my SR22. Before that I had it on the right side, but it was a little too far away for the mini and also in front of the heating and air condition controls.
Haha … Yes, everytime I fly I feel a bit like Captain Kirk :-)
AF wrote:
I’m pretty sure you could land a space shuttle with that setup!
Especially as what they actually landed the Space Shuttle was this:
That is the older version Space Shuttle, the newer versions looked like this:
The SR22 stuff is irrelevant to a TB20. There isn’t the room for an Ipad which anyway blocks a huge chunk if the field of view especially when turning left to land. I would never have such a thing there.
I would choose a modern phone, not a tablet, as a yoke mount.
A really good point @alioth … The big Q is what app will give me TAWS as well as airspace warnings, on the audio output. I don’t want to pay a lot of money for the sub each year, either.
