Garmin 196/296 - Useful tools.

Guest Discussion
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Ok…time to start a new subject. The usefulness of the Garmin 196/296. One of the most useful tools on the Garmin 196 (and I presume on the 296), is the weight and balance calculator. I searched the archives, but found nothing previously posted. If you are not using this feature, it will save you a lot of time as after you set up your Cirrus parameters in the program, you simply enter the weights of the passengers and baggage and it gives you the CG. If you print out the envelope page and have it with you, you merely take the number produced by the Garmin and see if you are within the envelope.

Although I don’t have my Cirrus yet ((28 days and counting), I use this feature all the time with my T Arrow. Living on an island, we load the plane up at Costco when we visit America (what we islanders call the mainland) and there are many times that I have my wife put that large bottle of Tide on the floor in the front seat to move CG forward. (you would be amazed at what you can get in an Arrow).

Peter (N466CE SR22G2 S/N 999)

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I just set up my 296 this weekend and am more impressed every day with what it can do.

Thanks for the tip! I just xeroxed the CG Limits page and added it to my kneeboard.

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There’s another neat feature that I’ve discovered: In the lower left hand corner of the Position Data page is a field that shows your radial and distance from a selectable type of “nearest” point. I set it to VOR and I instantly have my position in a format that’s useful for communicating it (for example, on initial call up to Flight Watch). Very handy indeed!