Garmin 495 vs Aera 500

[FlipFlop]

Hi everyone, I am new to the site - at first glance it looks the sort of site that will interest me.

 

I haven't flown for 30 years and am busy redoing my licence. I have bought myself a Cherokee 235 and am loving it. There have been a few problems though. The prop is fairly new and is a Hartzell Scimitar 3 blade (CSP) and after the mid-life it had a vibration, despite having been balanced. Apparently they are prone to this problem. It is currently being sorted out.

 

I bought the aircraft with a Garmin 150 which doesn't work very well and I am considering buying either an Aera 500 or a 495. Has anyone compared the two?

 

As I am new to the "modern" age of flying (and to forums), I appreciate any chat.

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

... I am considering buying either an Aera 500 or a 495. Has anyone compared the two?As I am new to the "modern" age of flying (and to forums), I appreciate any chat.

Welcome:welcome: FlipFlop. Both to this site and back to flying. You will find this a helpful and welcoming community.

 

I've used the Garmin 495 during my training (on training school aircraft) and have now bought a 550 for use in my own aircraft. There's a significant difference between the 500 and the 550, too.

 

The touch screen 550 is much easier to use than the 495 with buttons and a cursor tilt button. To place the cursor, just touch the screen. To pan, touch and drag across the screen.

 

In addition, the 550 maps are higher resolution than for the 495/500, especially the terrain depiction. The 550 also includes road maps and an Automotive / Bicycle / Pedestrian mode, so I use it in the car and for Geocaching (includes hand held and off-road) as well.

 

Changing modes (between aviation & automotive) with the 550 is also easier.

 

For my money, the 550 is well worth the extra cost.

 

 

[Guest Wigg]

Welcome to the forum FlipFlop. Wigg

 

 

[dazza 38]

Welcome Flipflop.

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

Garmin 550

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention. The touch screen works well when wearing flying gloves. That was important to me, flying in an open cockpit. With winter starting air temperature in the evenings has been between 8 and 12 degrees and recently -1 in the morning.

 

Hope all this helps. I'm happy to answer specific questions about it as well.

 

 

[Tracktop]

Welcome FlipFlop

 

David, the question that begs most is - especially for us

 

frustrated open cockpit converted car GPS users

 

What is the screen like in full direct sunlight.

 

I notice the 495 spec reads

 

"3.8inch diagonal (9.65 cm) 320 x 480 pixels, 256 color sunlight readable TFT with adjustable backlighting"

 

Whereas the 550 spec reads

 

"Display size, WxH: 3.81"W x 2.25"H (9.7 x 5.7 cm); 4.3" diag (10.9 cm)

 

Display resolution, WxH: 480 x 272 pixels

 

Display type: touchscreen WQVGA color TFT with white backlight"

 

So Garmin use sunlight readable for the 495 but not the 550?

 

Other than terrain resolution, are there any other benefits in the 550 over the 500?

 

The other benefits all seem US based

 

In a trike particularly ( not having used terrain info) - do you find the terrain info

 

a benefit.

 

I am usually very aware of the terrain around / under / in front of me.

 

How do you find the touch screen in turbulence?

 

I currently use a Garmin 60 and a touch screen Navman together and find although

 

slower to use the Garmin button model is much more accurate with less or no goto wrong

 

thingo errors compared to the touch screen gps in turbulance.

 

What else can you tell us about them - good and bad?

 

Ray

 

 

[eastmeg2]

Hi Dave,

 

I fly in a pretty cool climate too, with our airfield altitude at 2,460ft AMSL south of Goulburn.

 

If you get a pair of bar-mitts you will find you don't need gloves - I haven't used gloves at all for the last few years since realising this. Radio & GPS operations are much easier without gloves on.

 

It's just a short walk to the end of JD drive for you to get a pair if you haven't already.

 

Cheers,

 

Glen

 

 

[FlipFlop]

Hi Dave,

 

Thanks for the information and opinion, that is a great help. I have been told that most of the benefits of the 550 over the 500 are US specific -confirming Ray's comment.

 

Cheers,

 

Phil.

 

 

[JG3]

I have a 500 and find it really good.

 

The screen is very bright and clear.

 

It's not really a touch screen at all, it's a 'press' screen, and well designed so that it's not a problem in turbulence. Just accidentally touching some part of the screen doesn't trigger it, you need to deliberately press it.

 

Terrain resolution is entirely adequate.

 

Terrain avoidance is a totally useless feature for our sort of slow flying machines.

 

For terrain avoidance we just need to look out the windscreen.

 

I can't find a way to permanently turn it off in the 500, so have to disable it each flight, and that's a damn nuisance....

 

But it can be a laugh if the voice feature is left on. On my first landing with the 500, the voice feature was still active. As I approached on final the lady kept warning in that expressionless computer voice, "Terrain, terrain" , until on short final she started shouting with panic in her voice, "Terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up, Terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up!" Once landed I soon silenced that annoying back seat driver.....

 

JG

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

Responses to questions from several people...

 

If you compare the Garmin 500 and 550 on their web site, side by side, the differences are:-

 

1. Terrain Resolution (9 arc second on the 550. ) Makes a big difference.
    
    
   
2. "Lane Assist" on the 550 for road use. This is just brilliant. For major city roads it not only tells you what lane to be in so you will be in the correct lane for not just the turn you are approaching, but also the next turn (where these are close together). In addition, it flashes up a simulated picture of the road junction with arrows showing where to go. It looks very similar to what you actually see as a driver looking out the windscreen.
    
    
   
3. Speed Limit indicator. Again not all roads covered but many are (in capital cities and other major routes including significant regional towns, at least in Australia). This is handy if you don't know the speed limit in an area, although it isn't always accurate. Especially since the Victorian State Government changed the defualt speed limit from 60kmph to 50 kmph without adding 60 kmph signs. <political-statement>Of course that works well with speed cameras to increase state revenue</political-statement>.
    
    
   
4. There are some features on the 550, ( XM WX and FM Traffic) for which there is no service in Australia. The 560 is the one that has a whole bunch of features that only work in the USA.
    
    
   

 

 

If the Terrain annoys you, don't enable it on the other screens. There are several overlays you can individually enable and disable on the map view, such as satellite imagery and terrain. On the Terrain screen, it also gives a forward looking elevation graph showing elevation with distance ahead. This will show you more than you can see if you are in a valley and cannot see over the hill ahead. I believe it will warn you if your climb rate is inadequate to clear the terrain ahead, but I haven't tried that yet. It's pretty flat around Yarrawonga. 300' is a mountain:loopy:

 

I have the sound turned off, as I won't hear it anyway with a headset and helmet on.

 

The terrain height shading, like on the VNC charts, is nice and you can tell the shape of terrain, not just that there's something there.

 

JG3 indicated that in our slow aircraft, we just have to look out the window to see the terrain. True, if it is close and visibility isn't limited. We still cannot see past the first mountain. I was impressed when I flew to Mount Beauty recently (one of my Nav flights with instructor). I flew up the Kiewa Valley at least 1,000' below the valley sides. After taking off from Mount Beauty, I circled to climb to 4,500' to get over the hills to Bright.

 

I still haven't used all its capabilities. As I've been doing Nav flights for my endorsement, I have been paying attention to the paper map and not as much to the GPS. [Whoo hooo... got my Nav Endorsement on Thursday evening:thumb_up:]

 

Not a really good photo, but here is the 550 in the air over Yarrawonga. (it's not a video, but this site keeps wanting to treat the link as if it is. Just click through the link in the header of the frame)

 

IMG_6277_DxO_raw on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

Glen suggested BarMits. I'm finding the two layers of gloves to be fine at the moment, but will keep it in mind. I haven't had any trouble operating the radio or GPS (and the transponder in the training aircraft).

 

Phil; There's certainly a couple of functions that the 550 has that cannot be used in Oz, but I guess it depends on how much you value the remaining differences. This may also be different if you want to use it in the car as well, since there's some functions, as noted above, that I also find really helpful. I guess you will need to find out what features will work in your country / area and evaluate accordingly.

 

I believe that if you have a transponder that you can hook up to the GPS, you can have your own poor man's TCAS. As I don't currently have a transponder, so I haven't delved into that aspect.

 

The one thing I haven't answered yet is "can you read the screen in direct sunlight?" If the sun is shining directly on the screen, then no, but as long as it is indirect, then no problem. I have found that the combination of the mounting angle at the bottom of the dash board and the wing shades it sufficiently most of the time. Other times, just hold a hand over it to shade it, but have only had to do that very infrequently. In the side-by-side comparison on Garmin's web site, the screen is described identically, so I think the reference to the 500 and special sunlight viewing feature was just the marketing guy on a different day!

 

I love the way the screen colour scheme changes at dusk from a white to a dark background, so it isn't dazzling at dusk or after dark.

 

 

[flying dog]

OK, I'll ask here:

 

Any of you lot with the 500/550 also have Mapsource?

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

OK, I'll ask here:Any of you lot with the 500/550 also have Mapsource?

I don't have MapSource and haven't so far been motivated to look into it. As I've just completed my Nav endorsement, I have not been using the GPS for {an aid to} navigation.

 

Apart from manual planning on physical maps, I use AirNav VFR to do flight planning, and I believe there is an ability to upload routes into a GPS. While I haven't yet done this, I just tried an export and AirNav VFR provides just one format: Ozi Explorer Route File (*.rte) or Ozi Explorer WayPoint File (*.wpt). It then offers to start "G7toWin" to upload the files to the GPS. As I don't have the GPS with me at present, I cannot test it at the moment.

 

I note that these seem to be CSV files having a number of different record types.

 

What I have done is to upload GeoCache locations (*.loc), both using the GeoCache web page tool and manually by dropping an XML file into the GPS filesystem. NOTE: This is in Automotive Mode.

 

One thing that should be understood is that the 5xx series are "Dual Boot", as either Aviation Mode or Automotive Mode. In other words, the hardware is the same, but the running software is different.

 

Both the Pilot's Guide (Aviation Mode) and Automotive Mode Manual says it supports Maps, Routes, Trip Logs and Waypoints from MapSource. These are transferred using the USB interface, meaning that the files have to be placed directly in the Aera's filesystem which maps as a removable disk on the PC. The manual does not say where to drop them, but I suspect relies on Garmin apps to know where they belong.

 

If you want to read the manuals, they are downloadable from the Garmin web site under Support.

 

I hope this is of some help.

 

 

[flying dog]

David,

 

I understand most of that.

 

I'll explain what I do/want to make sure it still supported:

 

I have written an EXCEL program to do flight plans. (VFR).

 

Why? To learn. I bought a flight planner program, and as good as it is, I wanted to understand navigation.

 

Anyway, I bought a 96C GPS. It's maps are loaded via the USB from the main PC. So, with Mapsource, when I am "building" a route, what I see on the screen is the same as the GPS will show me.

 

The AERA GPSs the maps are stored on a small SD card. I would like to know if - when a new map comes out, I want to know if I can have the new map on BOTH the desktop and the GPS.

 

Garmin are unable to tell me - or can't be bothered. I have asked a couple of shops and also can't get a definitive answer.

 

With Mapsource, I have ALL/Most Australia waypoints, VFR, IFR, Intersections, Airports (well most of them), NDBs, etc etc etc.

 

I can make a real good flightplan study it on a nice big screen, scroll around and all the boaring bits at HOME. It isn't a case of sitting down in the plane and build the flight there.

 

Again I stress: I would PREFERE the two maps be both the same. However, I do not want to have to buy the rights to the map twice.

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

David,I understand most of that.

 

I'll explain what I do/want to make sure it still supported:

 

<<snipped>>

Ok. Now I understand, but cannot answer the question positively.

 

I'm sure I have seen somewhere that the maps are compatible with MapSource, but I can't find it again. I've just updated the firmware and NavData today (28 day cycle). The firmware update is the second one, but they never seem to tell you why unless you have asked and been told that it is fixed in the next release.

 

I've downloaded MapSource and its manual, so will dig into it a bit and see if I can discover the answer for you. Won't be tonight though, as it is time for bed.

 

Maps in the Aera 550 are all in memory, as it has heaps of memory. I think it said it had 2.5GB available space, so won't need a flash card in the foreseeable future. You can add maps on a flash card if you want / need to do so.

 

I'm using the "Communicator Plug-in" (in Firefox) to interrogate the GPS and download firmware and map updates. There's also another program that will do it automagically without need of a browser, but I like to manage updates manually.

 

 

[flying dog]

Oh, David,

 

I'm keeping my eyes on the "Avionics/Aera vs 495" thread.