No matter what I try, it is stuck in VLOC mode, and the button is not switching between GPS and VLOC.
This is my first aircraft, and my first avionics, which is pretty dated, for sure, but should work just fine for now.
Any ideas?
Stuck buttons are a common problem on these units. An avionics shop can clean them.
172driver wrote:
Stuck buttons are a common problem on these units. An avionics shop can clean them.
You sure? We had a 430 with poorly functioning buttons. Our avionics guy said that the actual electrical contacts were of the sealed membrane type and had to be replaced. (Which he did.)
We had the units in our club fleet cleaned (the term the shop used) a couple of times and AFAIK this did not involve any replacement. That said, I wasn’t there when the units were on the bench.
Most avionics uses these Omron-type switches. As you can see, they are incredibly expensive, which is why there is a $1000 flat rate cost for replacing them 
No matter what I try, it is stuck in VLOC mode, and the button is not switching between GPS and VLOC.
Are you saying you are new to the aircraft and it never did switch? Possible, I have seen some aircraft with dodgy/wrong/partial wiring…
Yeah I just bought the aircraft and started learning garmin 430. So no idea if it used to switch before or not. I’ll give it a go with avionics guys.
Which 430? Some cannot be serviced any longer (i.e. the first 24V-only units = if they are broken, toss them to garbage). Yes, these unit need some maintenance and switches replaced from time to time, which usually is no big deal. A bench test at an avionics shop shouldn’t be a bad idea, IMHO.
As far as I know the whole 430 series is out of service from Garmin.
The unit can be taken out quite easily if you know how. I’d also check the button first.
Or is there potentially any setting that disables GPS?
As others have said these buttons stop working is common in those now older units. Our club duchess had them cleaned a couple of years back it was fine since don’t ask me how they cleaned them
