Garmin 696 Electrical Power Management

I've been employing a Garmin 696 since that they first arrived and love it. Among the best features is the screen when compared to alternative Garmin aviation handheld GPS navigation devices. For anyone who is changing up from one of the alternative portables with smaller monitors, much like the Garmin 396 or perhaps 496, you will find a number of important differences. One of them is the first boot screen, and that's exactly what trapped a friend of my own recently returning to FNL out of Kansas. He was accustomed to the 496, but had never used a 696.

While booting up, the 496 will present to you the battery amount and if it is charging. The 696 does not. So, my friend was motoring along westbound when the 696 display went out. He pressed the power control key and then it came back to life, only to go out again in a few minutes. In several fumbling around (who carries the user handbook when flying? ), he eventually found the page that showed the power to be almost expended. I thought this was a little puzzling given it was connected to the cigar lighter socket in the airplane. It seems that the connection was poor and just reseating the connector resolved the issue.

So listed below are a couple of tips for power control. First, once you initially turn on the 696 (or any other GPS), visit the battery display and just make sure you have got a good charge. With the 696, from the chart page, rotate the FMS joystick clockwise till you reach the INFO screen. The charge level will be under the GPS Level info. If you have it stuck into plane power, be sure it's charging. Whether it's charging, you will have a lightning bolt over the battery power symbol. The cigarette lighter connector in our Baron will be sufficiently flaky that I usually check the charge level every once in awhile on extended trips.

Then, turn on the power loss notice. For the 696, that is in the system setup screen. Press MENU twice with the main menu. Move the FMS joystick to System Setup, next press ENT. Rotate the joystick to emphasize Electric power and hit ENT. Twist the joystick to select ON and simply hit ENT. (page 27 in the 696 Owner's Manual).

And finally, add to your before takeoff check list a step to verify that the 696 is charging. It truly is far better to troubleshoot an issue prior to deciding to go flying.

From an interview with Bill Standerfer of Avionics Specialists LLC. Bill is an experienced pilot and mountain flying instructor. Read more of Bill's aviation articles at AvSpec Avionics and Avionics Specialists LLC.