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Garmin Aera 660 and GDL52

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02 May 2018 21:51 - 02 May 2018 22:07 #1 by Gordie Meade
Garmin Aera 660 and GDL52 was created by Gordie Meade
I should not ever go to Ebay as I find things I will bid on that I really don't need but are really neat. I found a "new" Aera 660 GPS that someone purchased but never installed as they sold the airplane before it arrived. Now in my M10 I had an Aera796 backed up with a GPSMap 296 so I did not need it but it's Garmin's latest so I put in a bid on it. The item expired about 3AM so I went to sleep never thinking any more about it. When I got up the next day, I had won at a price considerably below retail. When it arrived, it was new, even still sealed. I spent an extra $60 and got the Garmin hard wire mount and ball that fit on my existing Ram dash mount. Since it is a portable, there are no regs I had to follow. I got it wired in and it works so much better than the 296. It has all the latest features.
I had a GDL 39 3D ADS-B receiver but wanted XM weather. Garmin has come out with a new GDL5X series of receivers. The GDL 52 gets ADS-B traffic and weather, XM weather, and XM entertainment. I put my GDL 39 3D on Ebay and put a Buy it Now price on it. and it sold in about 30 minutes so I must have priced it too low (RATS!) I ordered a GDL 52 from Spruce and again since it's a portable, I can install it. I got the ADS-B working and have the free three months of XM weather and entertainment trial offer. It took a call to support to get the entertainment to work but it does and sounds great. XM weather is much more detailed than ADS-B weather and seems to update faster though they both have Nexrad as the source. I now have ADS-B traffic on both my 796 and 660 and two really reliable sources for navigation. They both have most of the same information available so I can have an airport plate up to see the airport diagram and still be able to navigate and see traffic. Since the two are portables, I can not get the airplane certified for GPS approaches but I use them in an emergency. I do have a VOR with Loc/GS so the M10 is pretty much done avionics-wise. Of course I said that 4 months ago too ........
Last edit: 02 May 2018 22:07 by Gordie Meade. Reason: Typo

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