boscomantico wrote:
A bit crazy though, innit? Buying a factory new, 600k plane, just to make it a project straight away (removing and selling some of the avionics, putting some sort of mount to put an ipad to give you the information that the installed brandnew avionics don’t give you…
Absolutely!
I do believe the DA40NG is available with basic panel (non G1000) in the “Club” version. At least it used to be.
Then one isn’t tied to the OEM supplied G1000 which is certified as part of the airframe (this is a problem for older non WAAS planes.) One could add a G500Txi, GTNs, a GFC500 and a G5.
I don’t see the point of buying a new 40 without G1000 as it is now equipped with a NXI with WAAS anyway.
I also believe the NXI has VFR waypoints which the early G1000 didn’t offer.
I never had a problem flying the 40 with an iPad on my lap.
All in all the 40 with FADEC / JET A1 is one of the best planes available new for europe and it’s really great to handfly too.
0fficer wrote:
Is it really that important to have an iPad if you have the G1000 NXi in front of you?
IMHO – yes. One of the twins I fly has a G950 (G1000 minus engine instruments) and I find that stuff vastly overrated. I really prefer to have the approach plate on my iPad right in front of me, better charts (try to read airspace boundaries on the G1000 MFD – good luck!). Don’t forget, the G1000 is essentially 20 year old tech, basically a 530 with a lot of lipstick. That said, it certainly increases resale value, which seems to be of concern to the OP.
0fficer wrote:
Is it really that important to have an iPad if you have the G1000 NXi in front of you?
If you fly IFR fully in airspace from ATC airport to ATC airport as planned, you can surely do everything on G1000nxi without an iPad, including brefing the charts, departures & approaches 
if you do anything else you will have to fetch in your tablet & phone, of course assuming the MFD is always ON (a friend called me to give him a ride to bring his DA40 after he landed by pre-caution from an IFR flight in Lyon Bron when his MFD suddenly went OFF, he left it there for a week)
I guess that’s a fair point to say that when everything is pre planned (IFR) the G1000 NXi is enough but a freestyle VFR flight requires more info than the G1000 can offer. The NXi is definitely better than the classic G1000 IMO.
I don’t like having so many screens in front of me. If I need it pick the iPad up, look at it and stow it again even for approaches. Everything else is on the PFD and MFD.
