Skyview Panel with a Garmin 496 Ball Mount

I attended the fly-in breakfast at Page field in Ft. Myers FL last Sunday. I saw a very nice RV-12 with a Skyview panel. and was surprised to see the addition of a Garmin 496 mounted on a ball mount on the panel. To me, it looked a bit cluttered, but maybe I am missing some great advantage to the extra GPS. With free 28 day Skyview updates, large split screens, and the option to add Seattle's offerings, I don't see the advantage. I tried to find the owner for a chat, but I must have missed him. So what am I missing?

Tom

Perhaps he wanted the weather feature available on the Garmin ?

We also have that on the Skyview with ADS B. Weather, and traffic work really well on the Skyview.

Perhaps the owner was using their older 496 as a backup to SkyView?

Though the SkyView is a remarkable avionics unit it can fail. I know from personal experience! I went from all the features and capabilities to a single Garmin radio.

Since I only have a single screen setup I'm personally contemplating a back ....perhaps an iFly GPS 740.

A couple of months ago the Border Patrol was showing off their brand new helicopter, equipped with every conceivable latest tech gadget known to people spending taxpayer money - and up on top of the panel a grungy old 496! I finally got an answer, the pilot had grown so used to the 496 he would rather fly with that than all the fancy complicated nav aids!

It is quite handy to have a portable GPS that you can put a flght plan into at home or hotel before getting to aircraft.

My Garmin 196 (later a 496) was installed so the passenger would have something with which to amuse him/her self... (;>0)