One of my best decision was to change my Garmin 430/530 to Avidyne. Nice features, options, Way different philosophy. The only cons I had, that the newly installed box had display issues, was changed by Avidyne immediately. You need an Avidyne dealer to install it, especially if you have SW upgrades in the beginning, or in the meantime. This was mistake of us, talked to the support, restarted install perfectly done.
Peter wrote:
There is a debate about whether the WAAS antenna is actually needed because it isn’t any different from the non WAAS one for practical purposes. See e.g. here.
Perhaps a good theoretical discussion, but the installation needs the approved antenna & cable to meet certification requirements.
By9468840 wrote:
Yes I exactly did that and swapped my non waas gns530 with IFD540. Installation was 2 minutes. :) we spend an hour or two on a new waas antenna and by far the longest work was doing the paperwork.
I’m thinking of going 430 to 440 soon. What paperwork is involved? Part of the attraction is the slide-in nature of it. Can it be done by a freelance avionics person?
I’m not at all familiar with avionics regulations.
zuutroy wrote:
I’m thinking of going 430 to 440 soon. What paperwork is involved? Part of the attraction is the slide-in nature of it. Can it be done by a freelance avionics person?
I’m not at all familiar with avionics regulations.
IFD 440/540 comes with an AML-STC – that is, one STC covering a long list of aircraft types, so if your aircraft is on this list and you only plan to swap the unit without other modifications, then no further approval is needed. A freelance Part-66 avionics engineer (like yours truly) can do it. Two important and sometimes overlooked items of paperwork are a POH supplement for the new unit, and registering the new unit + deregistering the old one with your national telecom authority because it includes a radio transmitter.
Zsoszu wrote:
One of my best decision was to change my Garmin 430/530 to Avidyne. Nice features, options, Way different philosophy.
Can you explain a little bit more in detail about how you have found it going from Garmin to Avidyne? We are looking at an avionics upgrade next year maybe, and I only have experience of the Garmin units. I would be interested to know what you found that Avidyne does better, how you find the philosophy different and also is there anything you miss from the Garmin unit?
registering the new unit + deregistering the old one with your national telecom authority because it includes a radio transmitter.
That’s a new one… which countries need that?
Peter wrote:
That’s a new one… which countries need that?
Every single one, I think, though in some cases it may be done implicitly via the CAA, and some countries (including the UK) only care about the kinds of equipment installed (e.g. COM radio, DME, transponder, etc.) rather than specific models or serial numbers, in which case swapping a GNS for IFD need not be registered – I stand corrected.
Pirho wrote:
how you find the philosophy different and also is there anything you miss from the Garmin unit?
The Avidyne unit behaves more like an FMS on bigger iron. In many ways it is a further development of the Apollo CNS480, which was also considered to be an FMS-like device and much ahead of the GNS although being from the same era. I’m not familiar in detail with the Garmin GTN line, but the user interface seems to be more similar to the portable line with menu layers which is very familiar to many private pilots.
As far as what to miss from the Garmin unit, the IFD is IMHO better in all ways than the GNS it replaces and has a number of features that were missing from the GTN when it first came out, such as wifi connectivity and the ability to display radar and video (e.g. infrared) streams. But the competition forced Garmin to play catch-up and the IFD has lost some of that advantage. The only Garmin GTN features that I currently miss on my IFD are a) IAPs with RF legs and b) en-route VNAV output stream for an a/p.
Also, apparently, there is no current official support for the Garmin GI275 although I have heard that some shops in the US will sign it off without it. The G5/GFC500 are supported on the basis of being a GNS compatible device, but there are claims that the GI275 STC is written in such a way that prevents this.
chflyer wrote:
The Avidyne unit behaves more like an FMS on bigger iron…..
Thank you! I am quite familiar with big iron FMS systems, but have not had any experience of Avidyne. It sounds very interesting, atlough I suspect other group members may be less keen to venture away from the familiar GNS/GTN lineup. I will have to see if we can get a demo of some sort.
There’s a demo app for iPad which you might find useful.
