It may only be September, but start making your Christmas list now – Garmin’s new series of portable aviation navigation devices has just hit the shelves.
By Hazel PlushIt may only be September, but start making your Christmas list now – Garmin’s new series of portable aviation navigation devices has just hit the shelves.
The aera 796 and 795 are the latest bits of kit from the sat nav genii and, according to Gary Kelley, Vice President of Garmin’s marketing, “it’s almost like having a glass cockpit that you can fit in your flight bag.”According to the Garmin blog, the aera 795 incorporates “the popular features of the GPSMAP� 695, but with a touchscreen user interface, pilot-selectable screen orientation and 3D Vision. The aera 795 also takes the pilot one step closer to a paperless cockpit with a digital document viewer, scratch pad and pre-loaded geo-referenced AeroNav IFR and VFR enroute charts.”The aera 795 features 3D Vision, a unique 3D view of database-generated terrain which uses GPS position and a terrain-alerting database to recreate a ‘behind-the-aircraft’ perspective of the topographic landscape. The resulting virtual reality display offers pilots a supplemental 3D depiction of land and water features including terrain, obstacles, runways and airport signposts all shown in relative proximity to the aircraft.”“Pilots continue to embrace touchscreen in the cockpit because they see how much faster and easier it is to access information while in flight,” says Kelley. “Not only does the aera 795 have the increasingly popular touchscreen user interface, but it is so robust with features and capabilities that only a dedicated aviation device can offer.”For more information on the touchscreen technology, document viewer, instrument backup, City Navigator data, weather data, and various US-centric technology (coming to the UK anytime soon?) see http://garmin.blogs.com/ukpr/2011/09/garmin-unveils-the-aera-796-and-795-portable-touchscreen-aviation-navigators-with-3d-vision.htmlThe aera 796 and 795 are available immediately for an expected street price of $2,499 and $2,199, respectively.
