I think the answer is – it depends. Does the 430 drive anything else? E.g. a G5 ? if so, then yes. IMHO it’s always a good idea to run the latest soft/firmware, albeit not immediately after it’s released. Always wait a little and let others find the bugs 
We recent.y installed two G5s in one our airplanes (a C182) and the old(ish) SW/Firmware version of the 430 proved an issue. After updating everything to the latest version it all worked.
If you plan to continue to use the 430/530 series for some years, I’d strongly recommend to get the software updates while they are still available.
Garmin said they are going to discontinue support, including upgrades, for the old units. Since May 29th this year you cannot send non-WAAS units to Garmin for a conversion to WAAS ones any more. They are just doing repairs, until they run out of spare parts eventually. See Garmin Service Advisory 2027.
So if you do not update the software and later decide to install say a G5, you might run into trouble there. You might also not be able to swap units between planes if their software versions are too different. We recently stumbled upon this during an avionics upgrade in one of our planes.
Now we are sending the 430/530s to Avionik Straubing for the software upgrade whenever the respective plane is grounded for a sufficient time.
The current main SW for the non-WAAS 430/530 is V5.04 and it was released in August 2008. The current GPS software is V3.03 and was released in February 2005.
There have been no changes released for non-WAAS units in reference to G5 installations.
Thanks. Anyone happen to know the difference between V5.01 and 5.04?
My smart a$$ answer is 0.03.
I figure since my question is related to updating the 430W I would post here. Our club has a GNS 430W installed that hasn’t had the software or database updated in several years. I was told by one of our board member that they can’t update the nav database until the software is updated and that they need to have an avionics shop update the software. Are either or both of these statements true? Would we be able to at least update the database before we can get it up to the avionics shop for a software update?
Also is it possible and/or legal to update the software ourselves?
You can update the database with any version of software, but some procedures may not be included that are dependent on certain software versions. The current main software version for the GNS430W is 5.40 and there are also updates to the GPS engine software to 5.0. The software updates must be performed by your avionics shop, but I would not expect a charge of more than an hour of labor. There are no limitations on the database updates and they may be performed by the pilot.
What is the current main software version of your GNS430W and the GPS engine? If it is super old and is a version 2.X, then you might need an antenna swap and an updated AFMS. If it is 3.X, several bugs have been fixed and you will likely need a new AFMS printed for inclusion in the POH.
Flyer59 wrote:
I asked my avionics company today:They did install version 5.20, but the GPS version is 5.0
3 hours is a joke though. I paid € 67 for the upgrade from FW 3.x and that was 1 hour!
Last Edited by Flyer59 at 05 Nov 17:30
Haha. I have update cards. It takes max 0,5 hour including writing down (I use photos) of settings of 430 so I would charge 1hour:)
Sometimes I have to go to 3.30 and then to final one, anyway its moment.
NCYankee wrote:
You can update the database with any version of software, but some procedures may not be included that are dependent on certain software versions. The current main software version for the GNS430W is 5.40 and there are also updates to the GPS engine software to 5.0. The software updates must be performed by your avionics shop, but I would not expect a charge of more than an hour of labor. There are no limitations on the database updates and they may be performed by the pilot.
GPS isn’t updated by rising main s/w. There is additional card for that.
