Garmin 796

[northern33]

Does anyone have any experience with the Garmin 796? They mention that the unit comes pre-loaded with geo referenced VFR sectionals. Do they come preloaded with Canadian content though. I've looked at Foreflight, but they still do not have the ability to do VFR sectionals as they blame Nav Canada for access to digital copies of the VFR sectionals.

[Big Pistons Forever]

Does anyone have any experience with the Garmin 796? They mention that the unit comes pre-loaded with geo referenced VFR sectionals. Do they come preloaded with Canadian content though. I've looked at Foreflight, but they still do not have the ability to do VFR sectionals as they blame Nav Canada for access to digital copies of the VFR sectionals.

A buddy of mine just bought one and loves it. The trick is to register the XM weather to a US address because then you get wx and radar info for North America. If you have a Canadian Address then you have to deal with XM Canada who are utterly clueless. As for VNC's you are at the moment out of luck because NAVCANADA won't play ball, they appearantly want a stupid amount of money to allow a third party to use the data. In any case NAVCANADA's give a shit for helping non airline operations is pretty low and so they are not putting many resources into GA VFR products. Foreflight does have an IPad app that will allow you to access the NAVCANADA IFR products though. AFAIK it is not available on the 796.

[CpnCrunch]

It's not as if Navcanada does a great job anyway - their publications tend to be full of errors. They are entirely a waste of space in every way.

[Independence]

I`ve told you a million times not to exaggerate

[northern33]

Thanks. Someday maybe we will be able to use all the great hardware in Canada like they are designed to be used...

[KK7]

I've been toying around with one, and although it doesn't have the Canadian VNCs, on it, the American sectionals cover a significant portion of Canada's most populated areas. So depending on where you are flying, you may be covered.

So far I like the unit, but I find the menus and accessing the settings a little bit clumsy, but it might just be my being new to the unit.