Larry,
Nice report. Runway extensions are very easy to set up .Do it all on the
simulator.
Example: For a runway extension to runway 15 at DuPage airport: Just
place the airplane in the center of runway 15 and save the location.
Rename it RUN15. Then fly outbound on the runway heading for around 10
miles,save that location and rename it EXT15. Now you will have a direct
course to the center line of 15. runway. Enter these into the route log
and whenever you need it, go to the route log and choose RUNEXT15-RUN15,
and activate the route plan.
Easy to do, and enter the most often runways from your living room
chair. Rename them with identifiers you will remember.
Bill Coons.
Larry Snyder wrote:
>
> I hope this is the correct forum for this. I received a Garmin aera
> 500 for Christmas. I had expressed an interest in it after seeing it
> demonstrated on YouTube, and reading about its features. This is a
> real step forward for an aviation GPS, and makes it almost as easy to
> use as Garmin's automotive GPS, the nuvi. In fact, in automotive mode,
> the aera IS a nuvi!
>
> My previous GPS was a Lowrance 600C, which 3 years ago was really cool
> to me. Its screen, however, was small, not very bright and kind of
> difficult to read. I always had to have a pair of reading glasses
> handy to be able to read the numbers on the bottom of the map on the
> 600C. I also found moving the cursor to a spot on the map to get more
> information about something very difficult, particularly in rough air.
>
> The aera is a touch screen GPS, so if you want more information about
> something on the map, just touch it. Also, this is a 4.3-inch screen
> and the display is brighter and easier to read than the Lowrance. I
> flew in direct sunlight and had no problems.
>
> The NEAREST feature on the aera is cool. It can show nearest airports,
> nearest nave aids, nearest ARTCC frequencies (really cool) or nearest
> airports with weather and the frequencies. It will also show nearest
> FSS frequencies. Very cool. And it shows the names - so I don't feel
> stupid calling FSS not knowing the name of the radio station. Same for
> ARTCC.
>
> The HSI screen is cool, with lots of instruments simulated, including
> bank indicator.
>
> One thing the 600C I miss is a runway extension feature that helped
> you line up to a runway from afar.
>
> Now for the coolest part (for me). If you own a Garmin SL30 or SL40
> radio, you MUST get an aera!
>
> Four years ago I had a Garmin SL40 installed in my Ercoupe. Little did
> I know how well that would work out! You can get a bare wire harness
> for the aera that wires directly into the radio. When you select the
> frequency tab on an airport, or ARTCC or FSS, if you just touch the
> frequency on the screen it loads automatically into the standby
> frequency on the radio! Also, you can have it download the complete
> list of frequencies associated with an airport into the REM list on
> the radio. Just flip through and pick it out. I will never have to
> tune a frequency manually again! If I want to contact ATC for flight
> following, I just touch NEAREST, then touch ARTCC, then touch the
> frequency and hit the flip-flop button. When I approach my
> destination, I can bring up the frequency list for it on the GPS,
> touch the AWOS frequency, flip-flop, then touch the CTAF frequency and
> it is now loaded into standby on the radio. Awesome!
>
> I also wired the audio output from the GPS to the intercom so I get
> its audible warnings through the intercom (PULL UP!).
>
> There are getting to be a lot of touch screen GPSs out there, and many
> have bigger screens than this one. But I can easily read this one
> without glasses and everything on the screen is big enough that I
> don't fat-finger things too often.
>
> I have the low-end model the 500. The 510 supports XM weather, the 550
> has a few additional feature and higher resolution terrain data (you
> have to be really pushing it to need that kind of resolution) plus the
> AOPA airport data (which I have on my iPhone) plus SafeTaxi diagrams
> (I never land at big airports). The 560 is just the 550 with XM
> weather support. So for me, the base model is all I need. If I need to
> worry about weather en route, I don't go.
>
> I hope this is informative to folks - if not, I won't do it again.
>
> Larry
> N99340
>
>
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