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mstewart(at)iss.net
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 Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:11 am Post subject: GRT Wx Impressions |
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Since you guys were on the topic I thought I would fwd this I sent to another group.
Before that, on the GRT vs BMA thread, let me say that I have Both the BMA G3 lite and the GRT EFIS ~300 hours on em, and flew the Dynon for about 800 hours in my 6 so I have a little experience with those 3.
There is no way Id enter IFR with the BMA alone. It lockups up, freezes, and generally is not very reliable. I have seen others with same issues on their message board. The GRT has only locked up once which they promptly fixed with a software update. I feel very confident with the GRT EFIS stability and reliability.
I finally broke down and installed the wx option on the GRT last weekend. I have been holding off on this as I was hoping for some other solution that better suits my needs. Couple items worth noting:
1. I have an MX20 which has an obscene $5k+ cost to get going.
2. I did not want to clutter up my cockpit with yet another gismo to mess with. I tried a friends 396 and although a nice unit, I found that in practice have double duty entry on yet another gismo was annoying. Putting a flight plan into the 430 AND doing the same on the 396 was just too much work with all the aditional work load being IFR. So I finally ditched the idea of a 396/496 for workload and for cockpit clutter reasons
3. The GRT has only partial features of the other options, but I finally decided that the $1.5k costs gave be the bulk of the information I was interested in.
The installation was straight forward. I got a photo copy page of the wiring diagram and some penciled in notes to go on. It took a phone call to GRT to get it running. I was not impressed with that. A simple DOC of instructions would have been nice. I took the afternoon off and was fortunate to have been able to get them on the phone during business hours to get the efis settings right. Nothing frustrates me more than to be in the hanger at night trying to get something working with critical information in someones head who is in bed asleep. The experimental wold of EFIS's need a lot of work in the doc department. I mean a lot of work. I have owned GRT, BMA, and Dynon and they ALL need help in this department.
I did have to move some serial interfaces around on the unit to get the wx to work. The penciled in notes gave me the right info to do this.
Took several calls to XM radio to get the access initiated on the box. This was 2 hours and a dead battery to get that done.
Total hardware install time was 2 hours. Add phone calls and the 30 min activation wait and see it come on times, and it was 5 hours total.
I flew with it 6 hours this weekend and find it to be worth while. The information is easy to access and generally readable. We had a ton of weather around us all weekend and I actually was able to thread some cells when navigating my flight home from a Kentucky get together. That was nice.
I really like having it integrated into my panel and find this far superior to having to deal with the handheld. When you enter plight plans into the 430, it spawns out to the GRT and the MX20 nicely and makes for a nicely completed system. Having them all talk to each other is key for pilot workload in an IFR enviornment.
The display slows down significantly with the radar info turned on. Zooming in and out as well as slewing around was painful at times. Add the radar loop feature and the system is pretty taxed to get you what you need. Average radar age was 5 minutes. Page redraw times can exceed 10 seconds in map mode. Thankfully I have another EFIS giving me attitude info while messing with radar on the moving map page. WOrking the radar inages and decisioning with a single EFIS would not be doable. You really need full map mode to view the radar and when you do that, your efis attitude is gone.
The GRT display interms of clarity is fair. I have never been that impressed with the resolution and putting wx on definatley exaserbates the issue. Having an MX20 right below it really shows you the difference between a good screen and a fair one. But it is workable and I can live with the clarity and slow refresh speeds.
End of update.
Mike
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Bill Denton
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 97
Location: Chicago, IL USA
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| Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:35 am Post subject: GRT Wx Impressions |
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RE: "Putting a flight plan into the 4300 AND doing the same on the 396 was just too much work with all the aditional work0 load being IFR.".
You can connect any Garmin panel-mount GPS and the 396/496 together,0 enter the flight plan on the panel mount unit, and it will be displayed on the0 396/496.
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james(at)berkut13.com
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| Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:02 am Post subject: GRT Wx Impressions |
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Thanks for the report Mike,
Unfortunately, your friend must not have had the Garmin 430 and 396
connected by the serial data line. The two units, if properly connected,
will transfer the flight plans requiring only a single data entry in the
430. They also connect to the SL-30 radios to pre-select the frequencies as
the flight progresses.
Of course, if it's not plugged in...it will never work. 
James Redmon
Berkut #013 N97TX
http://www.berkut13.com
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mstewart(at)iss.net
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| Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:48 am Post subject: GRT Wx Impressions |
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Thanks for the info James.
I just borrowed to throw in my plane.
Ive had a couple emails correcting me. I was not aware the 496 had a
serial IN to take an outside data stream.
Best
Mike
Do not archive
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bicyclop(at)pacbell.net
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| Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:27 am Post subject: GRT Wx Impressions |
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Mike,
Good info. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Pax,
Ed Holyoke
Do not archive
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bicyclop(at)pacbell.net
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| Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:39 pm Post subject: GRT Wx Impressions |
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Mike,
I got a reply from the guys at GRT regarding screen resolution:
“High resolution screen is in development at this time. As with all of our
products if you wish to upgrade in the future your EFIS One would be worth
full purchase price toward the high res screen. Our software engineer is
aware of draw speed for weather and working on this and other enhancements.
I should mention that the data XM provides is sometimes the source of the
slow speed, this is something that we can not control.”
I’ve been thinking about Dynon because of bang for the buck issues, but based on features for the buck, I’m leaning towards GRT now.
By the way, how is the GRT display in direct sunlight?
Pax,
Ed Holyoke
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gyoung
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 211
Location: Republic of Texas
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| Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 11:13 am Post subject: Re: GRT Wx Impressions |
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Has anyone opened up the 396 power (cig lighter) cord to see if there are wires in it for the data connections? I know I can buy a cord with bare wires that has the power and serial connections but I'd like to maintain the cig lighter plug for power. If the wires are in the one I have, I'll splice into them. Any other alternatives?
Regards,
Greg Young
| james(at)berkut13.com wrote: | Thanks for the report Mike,
Unfortunately, your friend must not have had the Garmin 430 and 396
connected by the serial data line. The two units, if properly connected,
will transfer the flight plans requiring only a single data entry in the
430. They also connect to the SL-30 radios to pre-select the frequencies as
the flight progresses.
Of course, if it's not plugged in...it will never work.
James Redmon
Berkut #013 N97TX
http://www.berkut13.com
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