Sharing my Av8or experience
(Been a lurker on this list for too long, but finally have some experience to share after this past weekend so here I go... please be kind
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I bought my Av8or a couple months ago. I combined the Microsoft Cashback eBay deal (25% off then, IIRC) and Pacific Coast Aviation's BIN/best offer to get it for just over $500 delivered to my door. Since I'm not fortunate enough yet to own my own plane, I've explored its features quite a bit on the ground. In fact, I air tested it on a couple commercial flights as at least Southwest permits GPS receiver use above 10K feet. I'll admit this "geek time" (familiarizing myself with the device, browsing the manual a couple times) and possibly a nice price have probably contributed to my overall level of satisfaction, but I think this is a nice device.
I've been an automotive GPS nerd since 2000 when I went cross country on my Honda VFR motorcycle with my Garmin eMap, and I've owned 2 Garmin handhelds (nuvi's) and an in-car system since then. With that background, I think the Av8or is an amazingly capable tool and is very customizable to remedy many of people's concerns/complaints. It may just take some more time to explore a relatively user-friendly interface.
This past weekend, my wife and I rented the GNS 430-equipped Diamond DA-20 that I did my PPL training in to go from Stinson (San Antonio) to West Houston and back at night. I also flew beneath and through the Bravo airspace in the bright sunny middle of the day. By exiting out of the "Go Fly" section, and going to the settings to adjust the backlight to full, I can't imagine any issues with sunlight readability. I've read many reports complaining about the poor display on a sunny day in a canopy cockpit but I wonder if those people had the backlight all the way up. (Admittedly, it is a bit tricky to find the adjustment the first time but even my wife/navigator has it down now after adjusting it for day/night ops over the weekend. I do wish it had the auto adjustment like at least some auto Garmins have, but this still works fine.) In the end, it worked as good as I ever wanted! I actually felt comfortable using its profile view and relative terrain maps while flying near the Houston surface bravo airspace to give my brother-in-law an aerial tour of his home and office.
As for the mention earlier of too much cluttering on the map (or the other extreme of losing info while zooming out), that too is adjustable. You can set the range of zoom that you want various individual items (airports, VORs, towns, etc.) displayed. It does seem to be slightly sluggish with the more items you display at low zoom settings, but you can find your own personal sweet spot over time. I found this very useful to make it show what I care about for my purposes, while omitting what I don't care about (like NDBs in my case). You can also adjust the color coding to an extent for different airpace designations. I do admit, however, that I wish they had some more standard color coding options (like dashed dark blue instead of light blue/green for Delta). I've found settings that are close enough, and they may even be the default settings from what I can remember.
Some random, and hopefully more succinct thoughts:
- As mentioned above, this things gets a signal almost anywhere; in the house, in the SWA 737 at 40k feet, anywhere, and that's without the remote antenna!
- The touchscreen is awesome - touch an airsprace border, and it pops up with the altitude limits of the airspace. If your selection was close to other items, it'll ask you to choose which item you wanted more info about. Easy.
- The left-hand column of info is customizable, and makes 8-9 pieces of useful info available in the flick of a finger. Air testing as a passenger was great for determining what info I wanted in the scrollable column (Waypoint, ETE, distance, min safe alt, groundspeed, CDI, etc.) and now my wife scrolls through to determine "are we there yet?"
- The battery is the same as a common Nokia cell phone battery (BL-5c) so I got an extra for $5-6 shipped from eBay as cheap insurance. Thanks goes to the AOPA forum for this info. The battery is quick to burn at full backlight (~1.5hr) but it lasts ~4hr at night/low backlight, or all day with the cig lighter.
- Flight planning couldn't be simpler or quicker, even on-the-fly direct routes, with the touchscreen QWERTY keyboard. It makes the knob letter selection on the GNS 430 seem almost painful.
- Its compact size relative to the Garmin x96 series is great. I feel comfortable bringing it on vacations for ground navigation (hides easily in glove box) and in smaller cockpits without taking up too much space
- Even with a straight forward interface, some dedicated homework/exploration time goes a long way for satisfaction and maximizing its potential
- I am crossing my fingers I don't get any of the big failure issues some have reported
Ultimately, this is a great value for my flying that adds a significant layer of safety and comfort/confidence while on a budget. I agree with the drawbacks of an awkward power button positioning (which causes me to send it into sleep mode inadvertently; I use the slider lock on the side to minimize my frustration), reported lack of autopilot-driving potential, clumsy Wx wiring and short battery life. But in the end, I'm amazed at the capabilities of this unit. I may decide to upgrade to XM Wx depending on how much I end up flying longer cross countries over time. I also wanted to avoid buying a pricey Garmin to only have a newer, feature-packed and more affordable Garmin released right around the corner. The Av8or was my sweet spot at close to $500 delivered.
Anyone in the San Antonio area is welcome to borrow mine for short-term use. Shoot me a PM and we can talk, if you're interested. Hope this helps.
Ryan M
San Antonio, TX - RV "NV"