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The graphics arent as slick as ELITEs offering but low price and airplane library make it a terrific value.

If your kids call you gramps, your insurer may call you a bad risk and double your premium. But alls not lost. Regular flight checks and a proactive broker can help.

Mad as Hell
Every couple of months I get some form of the Im-fed-up-and-Im-not-gonna-take-it-anymore wail about poor quality in products of the sort reader Ellis Johnson sent along this month. (Read it in the “Letters” section.) Its not clear to me if Mr. Johnsons letter represents a rising tide of customer dissatisfaction with everything in general aviation or just everything in general.

My view is that while the quality of goods and services has improved, the quality of customer service has declined sharply. I base that opinion on the fact that many of the complaints we hear about or actually intervene in involve minor beefs about the product itself. These complaints…

Garmin GPSmap396
As always, I thoroughly enjoyed your latest issue, especially the article on the new Garmin GPSmap396. I have found it to be fabulous and your article was right on the money. It gets my vote for the 2005 product of the year.

However, it appears that there is a surprising flaw in the unit, especially since it was designed for aviation use, that I thought you should be aware of. On my first flight, I noticed that my compass was off several degrees and I started into figuring out why.

The GXM30 antenna is actually quite magnetic and seems to be the source of the error when sitting on the glareshield. I contacted Garmin about this and they indicated that…

Thus far, very light jets have been mainly marketing puffery. This year, four actually arrived, including a surprise visit from Honda.

Among light-light twins, the Duchess is one of the better performers, with good slow speed traits and decent cruise speed.

Later this year, Lancair will deliver a first: electrically de-iced airplanes to compete directly with TKS. The system can be easily retrofitted to older aircraft.

Although we like WSIs unique data, its pricing is too complex. XM-based data from WxWorx is readily available on more portable platforms than WSI.

The market is in utter flux with at least three new products poised for introduction. Quiet Technologies and Lightspeed are the ones to watch.

Yes, FS is more expensive but we like its structured syllabus and more polished take-away training materials.

Its All About Customer Service
Compared to the engine shop business, the sort of backstabbing and duplicitousness Hollywood is known for is gossip over the fence exchanged between rank amateurs. Some of these engine shops really have it out for each other and if given half the chance to vent about the sins of the other guys, you can count on hearing an earful, as I did when one of them phoned the other day to complain about our engine shop survey article in the April issue.

Ill refrain from naming names but this shop is a well-respected, nationally known engine builder; youd know it. The shop manager wanted to know why we didnt say as much and while were at it, how cou…

Garmins aviation-specific PDA performs we’ll but its missing wireless capabilty and access to XM-based weather.