Garmin GNC 255 or TRIG 56/57 NAV/COM

Thank you all for your advice. So in October i settled for the TX56, being attracted by the joint visibility and NAV and COM on the front display, the benefits of this being brought home due to my GNS530W failing during IRR ILS lessons. So I ordered the TX56 which was on six weeks delivery. I also decided (since the panel was being pulled apart) to have a Garmin Flightstream 210 Idelivery 1 week) and Goltze ADL200 installed (a refurbished ADL200 was available within 1 week at a very good price). My first ever avionics “upgrade” journey therefore initiated.

All equipment arrived as promised but then had to wait for technician availability. When it came to installing the Trig bracket is was found to be damaged so a replacement was requested which took a few weeks and of course the technician became otherwise engaged. Tragically the atual radio was not checked and it transpired that it also has suffered mechanical damage so anor moth’s delay ensured. Meanwhile the GNS530W was send to Garmin (they have a fix for circa £1k service) which was returned in 8 weeks having had a PCB replaced and all firmware upgraded.

Finally last week of April the aircraft was returned to service. Given the work carried out and my loss of currency a short trip with an instructor for safety was arranged. Sadly while advised all was good the GNS530W still had an intermittent transmit fault. So back to the workshop and after further investigation an intermittent short was discovered in the antenna connection. No doubt this may well have contributed to the initial GNS530W fault that initiated the drive to upgrade the old 25KHz transceiver.

After being rectified last Friday after two flights it seems I finally after six months in the workshop have good COM 1 and COM 2 set up. I am very pleased with the Trig TX56 and would be happy to recommend it. The avionics technician said he had never before experienced a Trig product failure or defect so I guess I was unlucky. My IR-R training and flying proficiency have sadly suffered so more instructor time due. Sadly an occasional Autopilot self test fail has now become permanent. No reason to suspect this is related to the recently completed work but I’ll start a new thread re the KFC 150 matter!

Apologies – poor terminology on my part. Yes you are correct however I presumed the data required has to be entered into the spreadsheet to create the CSV file for upload – hence “manual entry” or is there some means by which the frequencies and presumably station identifiers can be readily obtained in CSV format?

Thank you all for your comments; very much appreciated. The Garmin does require a subscription of $25 per year for the comms database. My GNS 530W failed during IR(R) ILS training at Southend while on 05 base leg, an event which turned into a useful secondary training exercise! I am therefore rather drawn to the benefits of a solid embedded database rather than something I have to input (with potential for errors and of course time) as with the TRIG 56/57. I will read through both user guides and make a decision subject to delivery time. While the panel is open I will also have the workshop install a Flight Stream 210 which will of course means deciding Garmin Pilot or Foreflight given I now use Sky Demon.