Garmin Aera 500

aera500 failure – Main board failure after 30 hours use. Lost all my waypoints. Apparently the voltage regulator went bung. This was the replacement for my faithful 296 which died of the same cause. I am buying a new 500.

Excellent bit of kit – I use this for a car GPS when traveling and as a backup navigator when flying. It is a really good bit of gear. In the car the navigating is spot on, the data is accurate and the Bluetooth phone connection is excellent. I have also tried the audio book reader and the video / photo viewer which are both quite good. In the air this unit performs as well as the $250K system it is backing up! It has several usable modes as well as terrain awareness and can have TIS added with just a cable plug-in from a S-mode transponder. It can also do XM weather, although that is a US thing not Oz.

In all, for under a grand, a perfect addition to both car & aeroplane. If it broke or got pinched, I would buy another tomorrow. Pretty much everything! Have not been able to fault