Garmin for the Win

[Pinecone]

For all their issues, at times, Garmin support is AMAZING at times.

I just did my entire panel.  My installer had a one time update of all the databases that he installed just before we test flew the plane.

At this time, Garmin has a promotion, that if you buy certain products within a certain time frame, you get a 1 year Americas OnePak with FliteCharts subscription for free $999 value).

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/promotions/aviation/directto/

I am coming up to the expiration of the shop database update.  I sent in the paperwork yesterday for the promotion.  I called today to see how long to process as the next database cycle starts in 2 days.

Well, it turns out the person handling the promotion is out for this week.

So the support person I talked to has provided me with a free database update for the next cycle until my paperwork is handled.

AWESOME.

[toto]

Garmin support is fantastic. As much as I sometimes grumble about their policies or about their corporate/competitive behavior, working with Garmin support is always a pleasant experience, and it’s much better than working with almost any other support organization. This is especially true for aviation products (which I guess makes sense, since many of us could have bought a modest-sized house for the amount of money we’ve spent on Garmin aviation gizmos ).

[donkaye]

1 hour ago, toto said:

Garmin support is fantastic. As much as I sometimes grumble about their policies or about their corporate/competitive behavior, working with Garmin support is always a pleasant experience, and it’s much better than working with almost any other support organization. This is especially true for aviation products (which I guess makes sense, since many of us could have bought a modest-sized house for the amount of money we’ve spent on Garmin aviation gizmos ).

Normally  I would agree, but today I had the worst experience I have ever had with Garmin Support.  Nobody wanted to take responsibility for what I think is a software issue with the Aera 760--and their attitude was terrible on top of it all.   It was obvious that this issue will not be addressed or resolved.  Very disappointing.

[toto]

Just now, donkaye said:

Normally  I would agree, but today I had the worst experience I have ever had with Garmin Support.  Nobody wanted to take responsibility for what I think is a software issue with the Aera 760--and they were rude on top of it all.  Very disappointing.

Ugh, that’s not good. For whatever it’s worth, I’ve had different support experiences with phone vs email support - you might try the “other” one if you haven’t already. 

I know that Trek Lawler retired - is there a new Garmin rep that frequents MooneySpace these days?

[donkaye]

10 minutes ago, toto said:

Ugh, that’s not good. For whatever it’s worth, I’ve had different support experiences with phone vs email support - you might try the “other” one if you haven’t already. 

I know that Trek Lawler retired - is there a new Garmin rep that frequents MooneySpace these days?

What a loss for us all when Trek retired...

[Pinecone]

What problem are you having with your AERA 760?

[PT20J]

54 minutes ago, toto said:

I know that Trek Lawler retired - is there a new Garmin rep that frequents MooneySpace these days?

No. No one has the time to monitor all the forums is the claim. Even Trek got too busy to check in here very often. Mostly he did when one of us emailed him that there was a thread he really ought to look at. When Garmin does post something, it’s usually on BeechTalk because they long ago figured out that there are a lot of non-Beech folks on BT and that forum got them the widest distribution. Or so Joey Ferreyra told me.

I’ve found Garmin support great if you ask a simple question (that you probably could have found yourself buried somewhere in the documentation). But if you ask a sophisticated question, results vary widely. 

[toto]

10 minutes ago, PT20J said:

No. No one has the time to monitor all the forums is the claim. Even Trek got too busy to check in here very often. Mostly he did when one of us emailed him that there was a thread he really ought to look at. When Garmin does post something, it’s usually on BeechTalk because they long ago figured out that there are a lot of non-Beech folks on BT and that forum got them the widest distribution. Or so Joey Ferreyra told me.

I’ve found Garmin support great if you ask a simple question (that you probably could have found yourself buried somewhere in the documentation). But if you ask a sophisticated question, results vary widely. 

Interesting. I never contact customer service unless I’m absolutely at the end of my rope - and I’ve found Garmin support to be pretty candid and helpful with some complicated questions. But that’s admittedly very few interactions over many many years.

I don’t use BT. They have a registration wall, so I have no clue what goes on there

I don’t think Garmin should have to troll every aviation forum every day, but I do think having a presence in the vendor section of major type club forums would benefit all parties. 

 

[donkaye]

4 hours ago, Pinecone said:

What problem are you having with your AERA 760?

Suppose you have a multi-leg flight plan and want  DIST NEXT, ETE NEXT and DIST DEST, ETE DEST as some of your data fields on the Map Page. You have hardwired MapMX from the GTN 750Xi to the Aera 760.  DIST NEXT and ETE NEXT will populate, but DIST DEST and ETE DEST will not.  Those data fields provide very useful information.  Using AVIATION IN before the rewire they populated.  

I got absolutely no help from Garmin and was transferred around to people who said I should talk to the people I had just talked to and had no desire to help with a solution.  They couldn't get off the phone fast enough.

Before I called Garmin, I posted the question on BT and got a response from someone who had an Aera 660 who said he had the same issue and also got no response from Garmin.  So it is a known issue.

[jamesm]

Interesting  you brought that up. I will have to check this out but, I  just updated with the current cycle into my AERA 560 portable GPS. It had been update in quiet a while since my last update. went to put  the airport into and noticed that there were duplicate fields on the map page. that I didn't recall being there on the map page. I was learning/practicing circling approaches  and put the airport in  AERA  so I stay within circling area boundaries distance field  being displayed to airport.  See what happens the next Database cycle in a few days. My AERA 560 is standalone so no data/serial connection to my other panel mounted GPS's.

James '67C

[donkaye]

1 hour ago, jamesm said:

Interesting  you brought that up. I will have to check this out but, I  just updated with the current cycle into my AERA 560 portable GPS. It had been update in quiet a while since my last update. went to put  the airport into and noticed that there were duplicate fields on the map page. that I didn't recall being there on the map page. I was learning/practicing circling approaches  and put the airport in  AERA  so I stay within circling area boundaries distance field  being displayed to airport.  See what happens the next Database cycle in a few days. My AERA 560 is standalone so no data/serial connection to my other panel mounted GPS's.

James '67C

The fields will populate when using the internal GPS.

[jamesm]

Where I was going with this is that  aera560 map page had duplicate  I.e  dtk and dist after nav data base update . I am not 100% sure that happened during the update I just happened to notice it then. so all the 4 quadrants of map page/screen having duplicate fields on map page.  just my personal preference. I wish I could have more fields. 

[donkaye]

Notwithstanding the issue I'm having with the data fields when hardwired to the GTN, the Aera 760 is the best aviation handheld Garmin has ever designed in my opinion.  I say that having bought every model (with the exception of the 196 black and white model) since they first came out with the GPS 90 in the mid 1990s .  I've attach a picture showing how I've set up my data fields.  The unit is in simulator mode so the destination fields are populated.

An example of the use of my setup of ETE to DEST comes in its use of balanced fuel planning.  When ETE to DEST is equal to FLT TIMER I switch tanks.  Having those fields on the same line makes this easy.

[Pinecone]

Interesting.  Thanks.

I used to run a 760 on the right side, but it was not hardwired.  

[Ragsf15e]

Fwiw, I called garmin once after having issues adding Canada to my navdata subscription online.  Waited on hold a long time but the person looked at my account and said he solved it.  I asked if I could add it now, he said no I already did.  I asked for a receipt (business account), he said I added it free.  I said I needed more than a month, he said he added the whole year.  I said thanks!

On another note, I have a very rare/intermittent failure of the altitude encoding between my g5 and gtx345.  It took me a long time to realize garmin knows of the issue but won’t admit it.  They’ll give me a new separate encoder but the labor is on me which is extensive because access is tough behind the rack.  I haven’t touched it yet…

[jamesm]

Hi Don,

So on the AERA. 760 you can get  8 optional user defined fields on the map page? 

James

[donkaye]

14 minutes ago, jamesm said:

Hi Don,

So on the AERA. 760 you can get  8 optional user defined fields on the map page? 

James

Yes, one of the really nice things about the Aera 760.  You do have options for less, however.  I use them all.

[ArtVandelay]

Suppose you have a multi-leg flight plan and want  DIST NEXT, ETE NEXT and DIST DEST, ETE DEST as some of your data fields on the Map Page. You have hardwired MapMX from the GTN 750Xi to the Aera 760.  DIST NEXT and ETE NEXT will populate, but DIST DEST and ETE DEST will not.  Those data fields provide very useful information.
Before I called Garmin, I posted the question on BT and got a response from someone who had an Aera 660 who said he had the same issue and also got no response from Garmin.  So it is a known issue.

FWIW, I have a 660 hardwired and it doesn’t have this problem, but it’s hardwired to the G3X. The certified division doesn’t play well with the others. This and the fact the 650 wasn’t designed to be a plug in replacement for the 430 is an indication the upper management at Garmin is not the best.

[donkaye]

18 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

FWIW, I have a 660 hardwired and it doesn’t have this problem, but it’s hardwired to the G3X. The certified division doesn’t play well with the others. This and the fact the 650 wasn’t designed to be a plug in replacement for the 430 is an indication the upper management at Garmin is not the best.

Are you sure you are feeding the 660 with MapMX?

[jamesm]

1 hour ago, donkaye said:

Yes, one of the really nice things about the Aera 760.  You do have options for less, however.  I use them all.

I just an instrument student, and thought that you guys that have been flying instruments for a while found do more with less fields. Personally I have 8 but it takes GNC355 and GNX375  (2) 2 " navigator to achieve 8 fields. I get a bit annoyed when have to go missed approach pops up and covers the lower part of screen covering 2 fields.

[donkaye]

2 hours ago, jamesm said:

I just an instrument student, and thought that you guys that have been flying instruments for a while found do more with less fields. Personally I have 8 but it takes GNC355 and GNX375  (2) 2 " navigator to achieve 8 fields. I get a bit annoyed when have to go missed approach pops up and covers the lower part of screen covering 2 fields.

Correction for the Aera 760: You have either the option for 8 data fields or none.  There is no other choice for less data fields.

[jamesm]

so then are not user defined?   if so what is prevent someone to pick "blank" as one of the fields in which case 7 field displaying on the map?

[donkaye]

1 hour ago, jamesm said:

so then are not user defined?   if so what is prevent someone to pick "blank" as one of the fields in which case 7 field displaying on the map?

Correction to the correction (rather than deleting one of my above postings): Upon further study on changing fields on the 760 I found that Garmin got a little tricky with their data fields. They give you options for 38 different functions, one being "Hidden Field".  When changing a field, if you tap "Hidden Field" you will hide the field on the Map Page.  So, in fact, you can show any number of fields from none to 8.  I just hadn't used that feature before, since I make use of all 8 fields.

[dkkim73]

6 hours ago, donkaye said:

Yes, one of the really nice things about the Aera 760.  You do have options for less, however.  I use them all.

@donkaye out of curiosity, what is your field setup? 

I haven't really customized my 760 much at all. It's a very nice unit BTW, thanks for all the advice and info on selection. 

My plane is a legacy G1000, so I have no data feed, just the ADS B from the GTX345R.

[ArtVandelay]

Are you sure you are feeding the 660 with MapMX?

No, I’m not sure what protocol is being used, but it syncs flight plans so I thought that’s in MapMX and not aviation protocol?