Lowrance SatNav star

The Lowrance GPS Airmap 2000C
Colour Screen Lowrance a tough rival to Garmin 296 IT’S not often a new GPS becomes available from someone other than Garmin or Bendix/King so the colour screen Lowrance AirMap 2000C is a welcome new launch.

The AirMap comes packaged with accessories including:
● Jeppesen aviation database on a flash memory card
● remote antenna
● yoke mount
● suction cup mount
● cigarette-lighter power cable
● hard plastic screen cover
● carrying bag
● user manual
● memory card reader with USB interface to allow data exchange with a PC.
Measuring 16cm x 12.5cm in portrait orientation, 6.5cm deep, and weighing in at about 650 grammes, the Lowrance is bigger than a Garmin 296, but smaller and lighter than the Bendix/King Skymap IIIc. These fairly substantial dimensions allow the unit to be fitted with a 12.7cm screen, decent-sized buttons, and a fixed, built-in antenna. The back of the unit houses the batteries, and connectors for the remote antenna and power/data cable.

The screen is not particularly high resolution, but its brightness, clarity, and the richness of the colours is excellent. The downside of the colour screen and powerful backlighting is, of course, high power consumption. Consequently the AirMap 2000c is designed to run from the aircraft’s electrical supply, with the 4 x AA alkaline batteries only providing emergency backup. I found that the unit ran for about 90 minutes on a fresh set of Duracells, so if you can’t connect to your aircraft’s electrical supply using an adapter, then you’ll need either a big bag of batteries or the optional, brick-sized, gel battery power pack. The unit comes with a worldwide, low-detail background map that includes geographical information such as roads and towns (but, oddly, not railway lines)

The Jeppesen VFR database includes comprehensive airfi eld, airspace, and navaid information. However, currently there is no information on UK MATZs or airways. Updates are available online from Lowrance for $35. In the US the AirMap’s aviation database includes obstacle data, but this is not available for other countries. Also available in the US is a terrain awareness capability, and Lowrance have advised that this will be available for Europe by April 2006.

I tested the AirMap 2000c in a Robin DR400 and in a Cessna 150. In the Cessna I secured the unit using the yoke mount and found it to be quick to fit, and easy to adjust to a comfortable viewing angle without obstructing the instrument panel. In the Robin there is a stick rather than a yoke, so I used the suction cup mount to attach the unit low on the side of the canopy. This also worked very well – the suction cup provides a remarkably secure attachment, and the double-jointed bracket allows for precise positioning.

The 12-channel GPS receiver proved to be one of the best. Satellite lock and position acquisition was never a matter of more than a few seconds, and once locked-on the AirMap never lost position until the unit was switched off . The Robin has a big canopy and I found that the reception was good enough to dispense with the remote antenna. Lowrance have done a good job of making the AirMap easy to use. Menus are context sensitive and well organised, and the type fonts are large and clear. The menu options have popup Help that provides a brief description of each option – useful when learning the system.

The AirMap 2000C is a great little box. It’s well-designed, capable, has some innovative features and represents good value for money. Thanks to Harry Mendelssohn for the loan of the test unit.

Lowrance GPS Airmap 2000C. Price: £549 Web: www.lowrance.com
Words: Phil O’Donoghue, Photography: Dave Spurdens