Unveils The aera 796 And 795 Portable Touchscreen Aviation
Navigators
Garmin has rolled out its new flagship portable aviation
product, the aera 796, which incorporates the popular
features of the GPSMAP 696, while also adding new capabilities such
as a touchscreen user interface, pilot-selectable screen
orientation and 3D Vision. The aera 796 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 796 and 795 will be on display and
available for purchase at AOPA Aviation Summit in Hartford, CT,
September 22-24, 2011.
“Pilots continue to embrace touchscreen in the cockpit
because they see how much faster and easier it is to access
information while in flight,” said Gary Kelley,
Garmin’s vice president of marketing. “Not only does
the aera 796 have the increasingly popular touchscreen user
interface, but it is so robust with features and capabilities that
only a dedicated aviation device can offer. With everything from 3D
Vision to electronic charts and weather data, it’s almost
like having a glass cockpit that you can fit in your flight
bag.”
The aera 796 has a high-resolution, 7-inch capacitive
touchscreen display that can be viewed in portrait or landscape
mode. The physical design has been optimized to fit on the yoke and
is sized perfectly as a knee-mounted device. There are four touch
keys on the bezel of the unit representing “Back”,
“Menu”, “Direct-To” and
“Nearest” for quick navigation to frequently used
functions, and because the aera 796 is customizable, the user can
also pick favorite features or pages to anchor as icons along the
bottom of the screen for even faster access. The display has large,
finger-touchable icons with intuitive pictures and labels to
indicate their function such as: map, terrain, 3D Vision, WPT info,
FPL list, active FPL, numbers, doc viewer, charts, weather,
SiriusXM and tools. Pilots can choose any of these functions by
simply touching the appropriate icon. The touchscreen interface
also allows the pilot to quickly pan across the map and pinch zoom.
Enhanced situational awareness with 3D Vision The aera 796 features
3D Vision, a unique 3D view of database-generated terrain. 3D
Vision uses GPS position and the terrain-alerting database to
recreate a behind-the-aircraft perspective view 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. With the flick of a finger, the
3D view can be rotated around the aircraft to easily view the
surrounding terrain. Using forward-looking terrain avoidance
capability, the aera 796 predicts in advance where potential
hazards may exist and colorizes the landscape showing amber or red
overlays on those areas. Any towers or obstacles that may encroach
upon the flight path are color-highlighted and clearly displayed
with height-appropriate symbology.
Because of the comprehensive offering of electronic charts, the
aera 796 may be qualified for use as either a Class I or Class II
Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). Geo-referenced IFR Enroute charts and
VFR Sectional charts come pre-loaded, and the aera 796 also
includes geo-referenced Garmin FliteCharts, an electronic version
of the AeroNav U.S. Terminal Procedures Publication. With
FliteCharts, pilots can quickly find and view all departure
procedures (DP), standard terminal arrival routes (STARs), approach
charts and airport diagrams. For pilots who prefer Jeppesen charts
and diagrams, Garmin also offers a ChartView enablement option.
Garmin ChartView utilizes Jeppesen’s extensive library to
provide global charting capabilities. Other new features include a
built-in digital document viewer that enables the pilot to load and
view PDF documents, JPEG photos, and many other electronically
formatted materials including checklists and detailed
performance/procedural data from the aircraft flight manual. There
is also a convenient scratch pad for writing down clearances or
other important notes.
The addition of optional City Navigator data on the aera 796
allows the user to search and locate any desired surface address
for use as a flight plan waypoint or for direct-to navigation. This
makes it even easier for helicopter and fixed-wing operators to
respond to critical missions around streets
and highways, survey land or perform search and rescue operations.
Instrument back up, weather, traffic and more Garmin’s
patented Panel Page on the aera 796 offers a backup solution to the
instrument panel with its exclusive display of GPS-derived panel
information, including track indication, GPS altitude, groundspeed,
vertical speed and turn indication. Plus, the internal GPS provides
position updates five times per second (5 Hz), allowing it to
present flight data more smoothly and accurately.
Like many other Garmin portable devices, the aera 796 also
includes a GXM 40 receiver for XM WX Satellite Weather and SiriusXM
Radio. XM WX Satellite Weather gives next generation radar
(NEXRAD), aviation routine weather reports (METARs), terminal
aerodrome forecasts (TAFs), temporary flight restrictions (TFRs),
lightning, winds aloft, turbulence forecasts, PIREPs, icing
forecast and several other important weather products. The weather
data may be laid directly over
the unit’s navigation and topographic map databases. And
because the GXM 40 is powered through the aera 796, the set up is
simple, and satellite weather and radio can continue to operate for
up to four hours without external power. XM WX subscription data
and coverage area information is available from XM WX Satellite
Weather.
The aera 796 will also display traffic if coupled to a
compatible traffic source like the GTX 330, showing TIS (traffic
information service) where available. Garmin has increased the
interface capability through the addition of a second serial port
to allow even more connectivity simultaneously. With two serial
ports, the pilot can display traffic information, send frequencies
to a Garmin SL30 or SL40 radio, send position information and more
to other select aircraft devices.
Taxiing at unfamiliar airports is made easier thanks to
SafeTaxi, which includes geo-referenced diagrams of over 1,000 U.S.
airports that identify runways, taxiways and hangars, as well as
the aircraft’s exact location on the field. The aera 796 also
has AOPA Airport Directory data, an electronic version of
AOPA’s popular U.S. pilot guide, which includes information
for over 5,300 public-use airports and nearly 7,000 FBOs.
Optionally, pilots can purchase the AC-U-KWIK airport directory
database, which features worldwide airport information for more
than 7,800 airports globally, and contains hard-to-find information
for pre-flight planning in North America, Europe, Asia, Central
America, the Caribbean, South America, Africa and Australia. North
American customers that do not require XM WX Satellite Weather and
SiriusXM Radio, may be interested in the aera 795 Americas that has
identical features to the aera 796 except that it is not XM
capable. Garmin also offers aera 795 Atlantic and aera 795 Pacific
versions for customers in Europe and in Asia/Australia,
respectively. The aera 795 Atlantic and Pacific are pre-loaded with
VFR reporting points (VRPs), AC-U-KWIK international airport
directory data and obstacles where available.
The aera 796 and 795 are available immediately for an expected
street price of $2,499 and $2,199, respectively.