I really wished I understood how Garmin comes up with the bizarre design decisions. Apparently, ease of certification is a major factor....
-- Christian Goetze, April 10, 2006
Some points I'd like to make.1. NDB/ADF. In the "rest of the world" (i.e. not USA) the majority of terminal & en-route navaids are still the humble NDB. RAIM outages often coincide with passenger's "gotta get there by whenever" so RNAV(GNSS) cannot be always relied on. In Australia, many routes are defined from NDB to NDB and often include ded-reckoning sectors -- even tracking between NDBs you may be out of range of either station. Several of these sectors are over desert or the Pacific Ocean, and may correspond with RAIM outages for at least part of the time (Murphy's Law).
So, the key requirement here is integrating ADF receiver(s) display / pointer with the HSI. Can any of the Chelton / Avidyne / Garmin units do this? And, when NDB is the sole available aid, two working units are required unless its a private flight.
As far as I'm aware, only the Sandel SN3500 & SN4500 display ADF data on an HSI.
2. DME is required for many ILS approaches. Unless the chart is notated "GPS can be used for DME" then you must have DME.
So, the key requirement here is integrating a DME receiver & display NM display (minimum) with the HSI. Can any of the Chelton / Avidyne / Garmin units do this?
Again, as far as I'm aware, only the Sandel SN3500 & SN4500 display DME data on an HSI.
3. Upload / download data from panel-mount systems. A particular annoyance is using a flight-planning tool to compute a course with forecast weather, actual loading and fuel -- then having to painstakingly enter all this good data into the GPS integrated system.
Given the universal availability of BlueTooth on all late-model Notebook and Tablet computers, and on the more capable PDA's, a BlueTooth upload / download capability is not optional but essential, especially when the asking price for all this panel mount gear is north of US$50K.
4. Has anyone owned / used / tried the Garmin GNS480 or its siblings? How does this work c.f. the GNS4xx/5xx family?
-- Laurence Burrows, December 18, 2006
Laurence wrote that "DME is required for many ILS approaches. Unless the chart is notated "GPS can be used for DME" then you must have DME."
This is actually incorrect. I hesitate to say that all new GA singles with glass are not equipped with DME, but I'm fairly certain that it's the case. If you have a GNS 430 or equivalent nav/com, there is no DME installed. What you're claiming means that nobody owning a GNS430/530 or G1000-equipped aircraft - essentially every GA single sold for the past five or more years - is unable to shoot about half of the ILS approaches currently in service.
AIM 1-1-19 (f. Use of GPS in lieu of ADF and DME) determines what fixes and equipment IFR-approved GPS can be substituted for (ADF and/or DME in general), and it's a pretty liberal list:
(a) Operations allowed:
(1) Determining the aircraft position over a DME fix.
(2) Flying a DME arc.
(3) Navigating to/from an NDB/compass locator.
(4) Determining the aircraft position over an NDB/compass locator.
(5) Determining the aircraft position over a fix defined by an NDB/compass locator bearing crossing a VOR/LOC course.
(6) Holding over an NDB/compass locator.
-- eric gideon, April 30, 2007
Regarding the GNS480 - GNS430/530 interoperability question; I have learned that there is no crossfill capability between a GNS480 and a GNS430/530 as there is between the 430 and 530 combination installation.
-- Scott Beck, January 19, 2008
First of on the CESSNA's the G1000 has victor airways on the maps. second, you can enter your flight plan using victor airways. third, the fuel gages have ALWAY BEEN IN VIEW!! on the PFD or MFD no mater what page you are on. forth, if you do not have victor airways on you map if you are flying a Cessna than you have the WRONG software which is old installed on the plane.
-- john jones, March 11, 2008
DME and ADF are options for all G1000 Cessna's and have been for some time now.
-- john jones, March 11, 2008
Well it had to happen, Cirrus is now using the G1000 Avadied days are numberd.
-- john jones, May 20, 2008
With regards to your comment on the Garmin G1000 and weather you say: "Wouldn't you expect to see this in the Waypoint or Flight Plan pages? You won't."Well, actually, you do. Just go to either the Waypoint or the Flight Plan page and hit the "WX" soft key. It's there under airport info. On the waypoint pages it's on the main display page. Off of the Flight Plan pages you have to hit "enter" on the airport, bring up the airport information page (same as what's on Waypoints) and hit the "WX" soft key.
-- Peter Marx, August 24, 2008
Also "The wind vector on the Garmin it is stuck into the inset or MFD map and the direction is not available as a number except possibly on a subpage somewhere."Actually you have three options including two displaying the cross-wind components.
-- Peter Marx, August 24, 2008
Seems like we're on a roll.Your wish-list items:
" * you should be able to enter Victor airways on a flight plan and these should be shown clearly on the MFD, with minimum enroute altitudes * all of the fancy screens give you no vertical guidance on approaches; this doesn't really matter for an ILS, but for a non-precision approach it would be so useful to have a text readout "you've passed the FOBAR waypoint, now you can descend to 2000' MSL" (possibly with an alert if the integrated altimeter gets below 1900' MSL on this segment)"
Both are on the latest update from Garmin for the DA-40. You have Victor airways displayed and easily used, as well as full VNAV guidance (at least for descents). There is no VNAV guidance ascending, weirdly, since the G1000 doesn't have any airplane performance data (a miss-step which also rules out W&B, real fuel calculations, etc.).
-- Peter Marx, August 24, 2008