When I bought N131JF, it came equipped with a Garmin 95XL GPS. This is a fine little unit, but Garmin stopped updating the database in July 2003, claiming that it had become too big to fit in the unit (the cynic in me prefers to believe that this was really part of a planned obsolescence of the unit, which was close to 1o years old). However, it has been way past time to replace the unit. Lacking any significant money to buy a next-gen GPS like a Garmin 396 (salivate, salivate), Jesse offered to sell me a Lowrance GPS that he removed from his Cozy because it did not really add enough to his panel (he already had a Garmin panel mount GPS installed).
So...I flew the plane down to Cleburne last weekend, and Jesse and I (OK, mostly Jesse, with me holding the odd wire, whistling a merry tune etc.) replaced the Garmin GPS with the Lowrance. There were no real issues with this process. The Lowrance is actually almost dimensionally identical to the Garmin, the only issue being that the data cable to the Lowrance enters the panel only just above the existing boat anch...er, radio/VOR. We adjusted an aluminum mount for the Lowrance to fit the Long-EZ. The Garmin GPS aerial was mounted on the right-hand side of the front seat headrest. This was removed, because the Lowrance cable is incompatible with the Garmin cable (when will all of these corporations actually agree a common connector standard? Hold on, there goes that pig....). The Lowrance antenna was fixed to the inboard side of the F22 bulkhead.
The GPS works fine, although I now need to spend a couple of hours really understanding how to use it. The unit velcroes to the mounting bracket, and there is enough slack in the power and antenna cables to allow me to remove it from the bracket and either prop it up in a different place on the panel, or even put it in my lap. This will make using it in bright sunlight a lot easier.
I still need to buy an update to bring the database fully up to date. This is really an interim GPS solution until I can afford a new-generation GPS. Dear Santa Claus....can I have a Garmin 396 please?