Ok… first off I love this watch.. which is not why I returned it…
This watch (D2 Air) is the perfect airline pilots watch… not fair weather/fly in bbq weekend warrior.. the delta and charlie are for them.. the D2 Air is built for the 4 day pairing fly around the country and keep your life together flying. It’s light, it’s fast it’s features are the essentials… it’s just not what you’d expect for a Garmin aviation product.. in fact I’m convinced it’s not actually a Garmin Aviation product but a gimmicky Garmin Venue.
Garmin aviation were quick to respond to my concern with the watch… huge points there… it was service you’d expect with Garmin… no issues there… it just wasn’t the Aviation product I expected.
I loved the workout features on the app… for the first time in a long time I was starting to work out in the hotels instead of sampling the local restaurants… I lost 7lbs in the first month I used it on the running coach program.. honestly I can’t find one better..
I loved the fact you had the choice between a leather strap and a silicon strap… I sweat like a pig when I workout and comings and going of life on a multi day pairing make the silicone strap very desirable.. but it was nice to be able to throw the leather strap on for a nice occasion.
I loved the metar features.. a couple of different options.. very handy……… when it worked…..
I loved the fact I could bring up airport info.. after the covid brain drain I found the watch to be a quick reference point for frequencies… brilliant…………. When it worked….
the issue I had.. is the gps… it just wouldn’t work were I needed it to.. I don’t need another gps source in the cockpit.. I have 2… I don’t need another pointer… I have serval… I don’t need a back up source… I have a QRH and a very well built Q400… I don’t need weather radars… or moving maps… or all those extra features… I liked the simplicity of the direct to features and the metar and taf features and airport info features.. the o2 features and baro feature were great bonuses… as a professional pilot I used these regularly.. and at the hotel and on my off days I used the fitness features…. Regularly…. I love this watch… it’s perfect for an airline pilot …. It’s just not an aviation watch..
over the years I’ve used lots of Garmin aviation products.. they are always on par or a cut above the status quo in aviation. I honestly prefer their products… this watch is unbelievably below par.
whats the issue… the gps… it just simply stopped working from the moment I walked in the plane and took forever to reacquire a signal when I got off. Unfortunately several of my favourite things about this watch required the gps. I tried it as a passenger sitting in the back with no real consistency… I tried it on both sides on the cockpit… on the same arm… with no luck.. unless I held it against the window.. I wedged it into a side panel because my arm was getting tired… and of course the aviation gods saw to it that it fell behind the panel… fortunately I recovered it before it became a log book entry in the journey log.. I remember at one point… pointing out to Garmin that after landing and doing my post flight walk around that the watch didn’t acquire any signals… lol I was outside .. in the middle of the most open space for a few miles in any direction… and after a few emails.. the conclusion…. The plane must be interfering with the signal… that’s were I decided to return the watch…… it’s an aviation watch…. I expect there to be odd interference… when you put a thick piece of metal between the watch and outer space….. but I’m outside on an open ramp…. The airplane should be the last thing interfering with it….. its an aviation watch…. And Garmins name is all over all things aviation.
so my conclusion… I loved this watch… it’s perfect for an airline pilot…. If the gps worked in the cockpit like it’s supposed to… but apparently the airplane interferes with the aviation pilot watch.
it’s a great watch and no one else is doing this.. it’s just not 700-800CAD Great… what’s a venue worth… because that all your really getting… and that works fine
