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Garmin 480 - what's the situation?

Recently I came across an aircraft which was retrofitted with the above.

It's a nice unit. It supports airway route entry, and appears to be approvable (N-reg, anyway) for PRNAV. It also does LPV, I believe.

Garmin bought the company (Apollo), presumably to eventually shut it down

What is the situation with updates, any outstanding bugs, etc?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

It's a fairly popular unit in the US. It is still being supported. It was originally developed by UPS (yes, the company with the ugly brown vans). The CNX 80 (as it used to be called) was there before the 430/530 and IIRC the first certified WAAS unit. Garmin acquired a superior product which was shipping and then canned it for their own product that was still in the works.

Garmin bought UPS Apollo to expand their engineering staff to do WAAS, ADSB, and MFD/G1000. The CNX80 was close to being certified, it was finally certified as a Garmin product as the first WAAS GPS. The software engineers who developed the CNX80 (aka GNS480) were tasked to develop the GNS430W/530W software which ended up being a complete rewrite of the original GNS430/530 software because the processor changed. Garmin had close to 100,000 GNS430/530 out in the field in comparison to the GNS480 in the low few thousands and had promised an upgrade to WAAS for $1500. They finally delivered on the promise, but it was late at least three years. The GNS430W/530W popularity overwhelmed the GNS480, partly due to it being so established, weak marketing for the GNS480, and the GNS480 having the reputation of being a difficult box to learn. Those that own the GNS480 are extremely loyal to it and were upset when Garmin discontinued the new production. Garmin has since also discontinued the GNS430/530 and the GNS530W. The G1000 is patterned after the GNS530W and is a relatively easy transition for someone familiar with the GNS430/530 units. In the mean time, Garmin has provided maintenance support for the GNS480 and is expected to continue to do so for up to another 10 years or they run out of parts. Garmin has issued one major software update to the GNS480 since it was discontinued as new production. They are expected to do one more update to the software to provide it with the capability of being used as a position source for ADSB, but it is low on the development priority.

KUZA, United States

achima wrote:

It's a fairly popular unit in the US. It is still being supported. It was originally developed by UPS (yes, the company with the ugly brown vans). The CNX 80 (as it used to be called) was there before the 430/530 and IIRC the first certified WAAS unit. Garmin acquired a superior product which was shipping and then canned it for their own product that was still in the works.

It is a very popular unit within a small segment of US pilots. The CNX80 wasn't shipping to more than 4 years after the GNS430 and GNS530. It was the first WAAS GPS, but UPS Apollo did not finish the certification and it was finally certified under Garmin. I believe it was shipping when Garmin acquired the company, but was not qualified to fly LPV procedures until after Garmin took over.

KUZA, United States

Garmin 480/GMX200 is a very capable "duo" that could be often acquired (second hand) for very little!

YSCB

The GNS480/CNX80 is a real IFR box for the real IFR pilot... But there is 1 major caveat for use in Europe... it doesn't support 8.33 frequencies. Otherwise vastly superior to the 430/530.

Belgium

Garmin GNS480
I have been flying for over 12 years with the GNS480 combined with the GMX200 MFD. I also have the new Garmin GTN650 in my Piper Malibu and I must say, the GNS480 is still superior to the GNT650. The 480 allows to create an arbitrary hold easily – the 650 can’t. The 480 has a NAV-Display allowing you to fly an ILS just with that.
The 480 needs fewer keystrokes to input a flight plan.
Here is the comment from Bill Parsons from Garmin AT regarding the ADS-B update for the GNS480:
“Dear Karl-Heinz,
The 480 software will be out sometime in the latter part of this year; Q3 is still the best estimate for availability. The ability to set up a hold on any waypoint with the GTN 650 will be supported in a software upgrade that will hit the street next year some time.
__
Regards,

Bill Parsons
Customer Support Manager
Garmin AT Aviation Product Support

2345 Turner Road SE | Salem, OR 97302, USA | Phone: +1.503.581.8101 | Direct: +1.503.391.3438 | email: [email protected]

regards Karl-Heinz Zahorsky, Commercial Pilot, N662TC, http://www.zahorsky.net

EDHK, KSRQ
7 Posts
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