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GPSMap 496: The first AOPA Pilot test flight
Well, the word got out last week that Garmin would debut its latest handheld GPS, the GPSMap 496, at EAA AirVenture this week. But the editors at AOPA Pilot already knew — because we had one of the spankin' new units in our hands. Replete with loads of new features, including AOPA's Airport Directory data for more than 5,300 public-use airports, the 496 was ready to go for our trip to Oshkosh on Sunday.

We set up the unit in the front office of Editor in Chief Tom Haines' Beechcraft A36 Bonanza after takeoff on the two-leg flight from AOPA's headquarters in Frederick, Maryland, to a fuel stop at Fulton County Airport in northwestern Ohio (can't be too fat on fuel going into the big show), and on into Appleton's Outagamie County Regional Airport. The set-up was straightforward — only four cords: the external GPS antenna (the 496 has an integrated antenna as well, like previous models in the series); the new GXM 30A "smart antenna" for XM WX satellite weather and radio; the power cable to plug the unit into the airplane's power (and recharge the new lithium ion battery); and the (very important) cord that connected the 496 to the airplane's intercom system, delivering music straight to our headsets. Accustomed as I am to the spaghetti nightmare of numerous well-intentioned cockpit toys, this amount of cordage seemed pretty minor. Maybe wireless will come next, Garmin?

Soon, I had our pre-loaded flight plan up and displayed on the Map page; by the time we were in the air five minutes, the magenta line was up and overlaid with echo tops and Nexrad radar images, assuring us that our flight would escape most of the clouds and all of the nasty stuff. It was a beautiful day to fly halfway across the country. METARs (aviation routine weather reports) displayed graphically on the screen, and by moving the cursor over an airport's METAR flag, I could see the standard abbreviated version of the METAR right on the map. To get the full text, and TAFs (terminal aerodrome forecasts) for those airports so equipped, you push Enter to bring up the airport information page and go to the METAR or TAF tab.

Also by cursoring over the airport itself, I brought up a block of quick info on that airport, including icons courtesy of data from AOPA's Airport Directory. These icons tell if the airport has self-serve fuel, a restaurant within striking range, or a courtesy car. Hitting Enter with the airport highlighted gives you the airport information page, where you can cycle through the tabs to the AOPA tab for complete FBO, transportation, lodging, and attraction information.

The screen is the same one that's on the 396, one of Garmin's 2005 Oshkosh announcements, but the data displayed has been upgraded. Both terrain and topographical information are in 9-arc-second chunks rather than in 30-arc-second chunks, making the detail much finer. It just doesn't look blocky anymore, whether you're looking at the background map of greens and browns, or the red and yellow terrain awareness data.

The faster processor showed its stuff on the Panel page, Garmin's demonstration of what GPS data can do when specially purposed. The Panel page displays a groundspeed readout, a turn indicator, a horizontal situation indicator, a vertical speed indicator, and an altimeter derived from GPS data, plus distance and estimated time en route readouts. The action on these faux instruments with the 496's new 5-Hz processor is amazingly smooth.

We quickly sorted out that our fuel stop would remain a great option, weather-wise and winds-wise (the XM WX gives winds aloft as well), so it was on to the entertainment portion of the flight. Signal strength for the XM radio signal is given in a bar readout similar to that you see on your cell phone. We never had less than two bars during the flight; reception was clear. I'm not sure my fellow pilots appreciated my taste in music (country with forays into bluegrass), but there was a lot to choose from. The interface is pretty good, though when you go to change stations, if you hold the Enter button down for more than a half-second, you engage a different function on the XM menu, which I did a few times before I wised up to what was happening.

The music pipes into your intercom system or headset via a cord (noted above) into an MP3 or other auxiliary audio jack. A soft mute feature in the Bonanza kept us from mixing up music and radio calls, though we did unplug the music once we started down on descent.

With the unit on the aircraft power, the rechargeable battery in the 496 is automatically recharged. If power is interrupted, the unit gives you 30 seconds to stop it before it automatically shuts down. If you push any button during that time, the 496 will stay on and run off the battery. I noted that a fully charged battery showed me more than 10 hours of running time on the 496's battery life indicator.

Upon landing at any of 668 airports currently in the 496's SmartTaxi database, the little airplane icon on the unit's moving map displays onto an airport diagram, showing your position on taxiways — or runways — for better situational awareness. This function had its foundation in the FAA's SafeFlight 21 program that mapped the layout of 80 airports; Garmin put its own resources into the effort and mapped the rest that are in the database today. More airport diagrams are on the way and can be added automatically with a database update on a 56-day cycle. These downloads can be found on Garmin's Web site.

All in all, the 496 packs a lot of functionality into a familiar box. There's an amazing amount of new information jammed into a faster machine — we didn't even hit upon the preloaded automotive (driving) data for this report. After all, once we were tied down at Appleton, all we had to do was follow the traffic to the show.

The 496 retails for $2,795 (no word yet on any deals to be had at the show, but it doesn't appear likely that price will budge for the time being). — Julie K. Boatman

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