I have one of these in the yoke, wired up to do audio warnings for GPWS.
Has anyone used it for controlled airspace warnings and how well do they work?
Can one get a current UK airspace database for it?
A. current database is no problem – www.flygarmin.com
Do the airspace warnings work like the TAWS ones i.e. come out of the audio (speaker) output?
I wonder how long Garmin will support the 496? It was expensive – c. £1500 – when new and still many people fly with them.
The other thing I don’t know is whether Garmin ever depicted UK Class A correctly. It was a very long standing issue.
I am aware of at least one fillet of UK Class A that is not displayed by my Garmin 695 – I imagine that this applies to all Garmin portable GPS devices at the very least. I reported it to Garmin about three years ago and so far it has not been fixed. I’m not holding my breath.
They will support it for some time as there are plenty of units to make money with updates.
Afaik airspace warnings work fine like with thenother Garmin sets. I have one as backup now as I managed to get a 696 for a song so to speak.
I am aware of at least one fillet of UK Class A that is not displayed by my Garmin 695
Is it that airway from SAM to ORTAC?
I would be more concerned about the TMA around London, Manchester, etc to be properly shown. Those are highly complex airspaces with lots of little fillets at different heights.
Are there any advantages of using a unit such as the Garmin 496 in comparison to using an ordinary tablet running SkyDemon or some other moving map software?
It can be wired into the aircraft intercom properly, so you get the audio via the headset. 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. Etc.
Aviation GPSs are generally robust units compared to tablets. No touch screen to touch and mess up whatever it is doing, etc.
Finners: I am aware of at least one fillet of UK Class A that is not displayed by my Garmin 695
Is it that airway from SAM to ORTAC?
I would be more concerned about the TMA around London, Manchester, etc to be properly shown. Those are highly complex airspaces with lots of little fillets at different heights.
SAM – ORTAC? No, from memory I think it is a small part of Y53 where it connects to the Manchester TMA.
I wonder if @Peter_Mundy can check whether this has been fixed?
Alternatively is there any aviation GPS which can be yoke mounted and which outputs audio (CAS and TAWS) on a line or speaker output? The last time I asked was 4 years ago here but I don’t think that was conclusive on this topic.
