Just bought a Garmin 296 portable gps as a backup for nav and terrain. Superb unit, highly recommended. Any creative ideas for the best place to put it in the cockpit of a Cirrus other than the top of the glareshield?
ask Mike R–his is in a great spot!!!
I mount my Garmin 196 using a RAM suction mount at the lower left section of
the windshield.
By the way, one thing I’m curious about on the 296. If you have it on the panel
page, can you get any sort of terrain warnings?
Michael
In reply to:
Just bought a Garmin 296 portable gps as a backup for nav and terrain. Superb unit, highly recommended. Any creative ideas for the best place to put it in the cockpit of a Cirrus other than the top of the glareshield?
Get the Ram suction cup mount. It sticks to the front window down on the left corner.
Here’s a link to Ram’s sight: http://www.ram-mount.com/ramgps.htm
My 295 fits well with the RAM suction cup mount.
I, too, run the power cord under the pilot’s floormat and up to the unit (along with wires for my XMRadio antenna and my 02 hose) Not hooked up in this photo.
I’d recommend the power cord so the unit can be on all the time. If you ever needed it “in anger” it could be an interminable wait as if found satellites.
I also find the “faux glideslope” VNAV function very handy.
Handy place to clip approach plates.
Not to mention having a fifth (!) moving map.
I’ll echo the RAM mount advice and add that a real pleasant surprise on the 296 I just got is the apparently very low power consumption from the standard rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries - battery indicator still shows full after 2 hours and it claims 8 hours or so of battery life left. I rarely fly more than 3-4 hours in a day, so it seems like there may not be much if any need to install a power cord even if the unit is on for all flights.
Tim
Any avionics shop that’s a Garmin dealer should be able to interface your 196, 295, or 296 to one of the GNS430s. All flightplans and approaches entered into the 430 will be automatically crossfilled to the portable. I had this arrangement in my 260se and it was really slick. If, as fasteddie says, you ever need to use it “in anger,” all of your flightplan information will be there and ready to use.
Do these units get adequate satellite reception without using the hockey puck antenna?
The Pilot’s Guide shows the panel page with a terrain warning alert popped up in the lower left corner. The book says that the terrain warning appears on any page of the unit.
Nice looking picture of your setup!
Michael - we just got a 196 with the same setup. How do you handle the power cord? I’ve just been plugging it into the convenience outlet then running it in front of the seat then up the left side of the yoke. Then disconnect everything after flight. Kind of a pain, so I’m sure someone else has a better idea.
Tom
I don’t use the power cord. I only use the unit when in IMC and I use rechargeable
NIMH batteries. I keep a spare set charged and swap them out after having used
the unit.
I haven’t gotten to installing the power cord yet, partly because I wanted to check
into whether this would affect the install being considered a permanent install or
not (related to the legality of the install).
Probably someone on the forum already knows the answer to this.
The 296 has a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery that recharges in the unit under ship’s power. Therefore, if you keep a power cord plugged in you will always have a fully charged battery in the 296. This is different from the 196.
In reply to:
Any avionics shop that’s a Garmin dealer should be able to interface your 196, 295, or 296 to one of the GNS430s. All flightplans and approaches entered into the 430 will be automatically crossfilled to the portable. I had this arrangement in my 260se and it was really slick. If, as fasteddie says, you ever need to use it “in anger,” all of your flightplan information will be there and ready to use.
Kevin:
I was wondering about just this, and I agree this is an ideal solution. I was unsure about the willingness to interconnect the certified 430 to the portable - presumably this may be OK because the data flows only out to the portable?
Do you recall where this was done, and whether they did it as a minor alteration or on a 337?
Thanks,
Tim
P.S. The only thing that worries me about externally powering the 296 is Mke R’s reported behavior of the unit automatically powering off when you lose external power, unless you press a key fairly quickly. It would be easy to be task-overloaded in an electrical failure and perhaps not notice that message.
I had it done at Bevan-Rabell Avionics in Wichita Kansas. Kent McIntyre is the guy to ask for, 316-946-4870. They did a very nice job on the panels of both of my 260se’s. I’m sure they could do this for you or at least talk to your avionics shop and instruct them how to do it.
In reply to:
Do these units get adequate satellite reception without using the hockey puck antenna?
In my experience, yes.
Tim
The 286 seems to lock onto the satellites faster than the 196 did, but both work well on the stick antenna as long as you give them a clear view of the sky.