Garmin D2 Bravo

[HRM]

Does anyone have one of these?

 

I have "been with Apple" since '84 and own multiple products of theirs and aside from macs/ipads/iphones at home I also work with them at the office. 

 

My son just got an $800 Apple watch and the force is strong now for me to get one as well...

 

...but...

 

...the D2 Bravo is just so aviation... 

 

...and it is cheaper!

 

I noticed that it runs apps that they call widgets, which is a big plus for me.

 

Help a fellow pilot out.

 

If I saw a D2 Bravo with a Mooney logo behind the watch face I would probably cave, but Apple could do that as well.

[Deb]

PIREP from a disappointed early adopter:

http://www.beechtalk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=110517

[HRM]

Can't get in w/o joining. Can you cut and paste here?

Thanks!

[ryoder]

The Apple watch has no GPS. Fatal flaw.

[Deb]

From http://www.beechtalk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=110517&start=15:

"The watch itself has a very nice style, light and good looking. The display grade is somewhere between a D and an F. To see anything you have to be looking at the face within I'd say a five degree field of view, and then it's still dim. Otherwise you see only black. The backlight switch provides illumination only marginally better. Nothing at all like the advertisement."

"In normal lighting you have to tilt the view until you can read the dial. Completely contrary to the bright vivid off angle viewing shown in the advertisements.

The way to get it a little better is to turn on the backlight pressing the button, assuming you have adjusted that to 100% it is better but still not even in the ballpark of what you see in the advertisements.

So consider that you purchased this watch as a backup nav device. Your already without nav equipment (stress) now you are going to focus all of your attention to the watch. I hope you have a working autopilot because you will have to turn on the backlight, pivot your arm off the yoke to be able to be in the screen viewing area, use your other hand first to turn on the backlight, then keeping all your focus on the screen manipulate the screens to bring up whatever airport information you are looking for.

Go back to flying and take a look down at the watch, oops you have to turn the backlight on again to see the screen.

So in my opinion this is worthless as a backup device. An iPhone, iPad or the like will be 1000's of times better for that use.

But if you want something cool to show your buddies, it is cool."

The thread is 4 pages long (on an iPhone) with pictures. Others have posted more favorable reviews:

"Seeing this post, I had to add that I just got mine and I'm very happy with it. I considered buying an apple watch, but this one does everything I could ask of a watch with features the apple watch doesn't have, such at waterproofing to 10 ATM, a battery life that goes for six weeks vice 18 hours, a Garmin WAAS GPS (apple has no GPS), barometer, altimeter, thermometer, high accuracy 3-axis compass, swim tracking (apple none - voids warranty as well), and ANT+ to connect to a plethora of sensors, including heart rate belt. It also has BT and Wifi.

And I haven't even discussed the aviation features. I used it in flight today and it's very accurate, and although mostly just a cool thing to brag about with your flying buddies, it's truly a very usable backup navigational tool.

The quality, fit and finish are very good and what you would expect from Garmin. The leather band is excellent as well, although I swapped it out with a stainless link band as I use this for swim tracking. It has pretty much all the features Garmin offers in all of their watches combined into one, including pretty much all fitness tracking, skydiving, geocaching, etc.... it's crazy..even tracks your sleep and links with my bicycle speed sensor - so it tracks that too.

From an aviation standpoint, it has a bunch of cool features. Now, whether you'll actually use them in flight? I dunno, but they're cool - and that's at least worth bragging rights."

Someone else posted that it could pair with Garmin's heart rate sensor and could have similar funtionality to the Fenix3, Garmin's high-end running watch.

Finally, Trek Lawler (really good guy from Garmin Aviation) posted the following:

"... keep in mind the display is configurable on some of the watch faces where you can give it a white background and makes it easier to see in low level light conditions when not pressing the backlight. if you synch it up with your phone via bluetooth and setup a connect account with the app, there are hundreds of watch faces and apps you can download for it. I'll send a pic of mine when I get it this evening."

[HRM]

Deb, thanks for transferring that!

 

Now, any Mooniacs with one want to chime in?

[orionflt]

Deb, thanks for transferring that!

 

Now, any Mooniacs with one want to chime in?

HHHMMM that may be difficult since most are members of the CB club

 

Brian

[ChrisH]

Always thought integrated pulse-ox w/ vibrating alarm would make a killer aviation watch.

[peevee]

Deb, thanks for transferring that!

 

Now, any Mooniacs with one want to chime in?

there was a fellow selling a d2 in the classifieds in order to get a bravo, maybe he'll chime in once (if?) he does

[HRM]

there was a fellow selling a d2 in the classifieds in order to get a bravo, maybe he'll chime in once (if?) he does

 

He said he would PIREP after he got the Bravo, but I checked before starting this thread.

 

He may have gotten cold feet...

 

...or wifey caught wind of the plan 

[ryoder]

I have the old one and it's better than nothing. Hard to see in daylight, bad resolution, very large, loses GPS, still better than nothing.