AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2011 - 97

page can be reached by simply holding down the dedicated Back key, and it’s seldom more than two touches away. Flight plans are easy to build and modify in flight, and loading approaches becomes quick with practice. But some practice, or at least reading the 46-page Quick Reference Guide (QRG), is in order. (Don’t be put off by the long length of the QRG. Much of it is lawyerly admonishments that no one reads, and the rest is extremely concise and well illustrated.) Four permanent keys at the bottom of the 796 provide the most commonly used commands: back, menu, direct-to, and nearest. There’s also a panel page on the moving map (familiar to users of the 496, 696, and aera series) that shows steam-gauge-style presentations for groundspeed, altitude, HSI, vertical speed, and turn coordinator. Unlike the 696, however, which allows users to switch instantly between the panel and full-screen map views at the touch of a single button, performing the task on a 796 requires several steps. Airspace questions can usually be answered by touching the Class B, C, or D rings or MOA markings and reading the information provided about floors, ceilings, and radio frequencies for controlling agencies. Touch a mountain on the map and the 796 shows its height in msl. The 796 offers pilots their choice between Garmin’s own moving map (with weather, terrain, and topographical overlays) and photocopied VFR sectionals and IFR low- and high-altitude charts. But the VFR and IFR charts have one big limitation in that they can’t overlay the magenta course line or XM Weather. Personally, I prefer the clarity and better readability of Garmin’s own hybrid maps, but many pilots have been clamoring for actual charts, and the 796 gives them what they’ve been asking for. Garmin also performs a neat sleight-of-hand trick by seamlessly switching between VFR sectionals and more detailed terminal area charts as the user zooms in on cities with the nation’s busiest airports. (Watch carefully, though, because the change is so quick it’s easy to miss.) Garmin is mum on ways that it might upgrade the 796 in the future—but the new device lays the hardware foundation for ADS-B “In” features such as subscription-free cockpit weather and traffic that are at the core of the “NextGen” air traffic control system. And 3D
AOPA PILOT • 97 • NOVEMBER 2011

Vision invites speculation about ways in which the 796 might become connected to a future AHRS so that it can provide primary flight data (as Garmin’s own G3X does in the Experimental market). The 796 is unlikely to win over 696 owners, many of whom have hard-wired the versatile MFDs into their panels. But the 796 isn’t intended for them so much as iPad users. It aims squarely at the ubiquitous tablet by adopting some of its best features and packaging them in a sturdy, robust frame, with a screen that absorbs glare and is much easier to read in direct sunlight.

In some ways, the 796 assumes pilots already have another tablet computer or smartphone since the 796 borrows much from those devices. Also, since the 796 isn’t linked to the Internet, those other devices are still helpful for preflight tasks such as checking weather and filing flight plans remotely. Garmin is betting that pilots, even those among us already enamored with the iPad, will want a 796 in their flight bags, too. Email the author at dave.hirschman@ aopa.org.

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2011

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