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GNS 530W/430W interaction with Garmin G500 glass cockpit

Hello
With a freshly obtained IR and a recently acquired aircraft (Commander 114B in a shared ownership) I’m faced with a number of things that are usually not addressed during training.
The aircraft has a dual 530W/430W plus a G500 and I’m still in the learning phase figuring out how those units interact, going through the manuals and playing with the simulator and in the aircraft avionics on the ground.
While there is a lot of literature found on the G500 and GNS 530W units separately I did not come across anything useful dealing with both when combined i.e. how they interact, what information flows to where etc.
I did some flying with various GNS and GTN units while working towards the IR and also some hours on a G1000 equipped Cessna but that does not necessarily help with the G500-GNS 530 combination.

Any hints from pilots with a similar equipment combination would be welcome.

Thanks.

EDRT, ELLX, Luxembourg

I seem to remember Garmin put out a training CD to use on your PC to cover those units.

There ought to be something because the G500 cannot function without being fed from a GNS or GTN box. So I would expect to see something relating to the G500 which details this (though not something relating to the GNS or GTN because they mostly exist standalone).

I doubt there are many G500 owners here on EuroGA because the installation normally costs of the order of €50k (with a W GPS etc).

It may be good to post a list of specific questions.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

We have a G500 and a GTN750, so not exactly your setup. Does your question concern the connection between the boxes? It is ethernet, though Garmin has apparently customized the protocol stack at a very low level. There is a paper somewhere, where a guy tried to hack it, using wire shark or something but to no avail.

EDFM (Mannheim), Germany

I’m not sure exactly what you are trying to find out, most of the functions can be selected from both boxes but my memory has it that the OBS mode is disabled on the nav box and can only be selected on the G500.

Thanks for the answers so far. As I mentioned I have the manuals for both units separately. I also know of course that the nav information is fed from the GNS to the G500. My question was rather about the best practice procedure or process i.e. when looking/ switching from one screen to the other, what information to display and follow on which screen at what moment without dublication etc. Maybe I’m asking for too much and it’s simpler than I imagine right now.

EDRT, ELLX, Luxembourg

Dear @gildnn, let me just tell you my personal views and habits. I’m also not used to your setup, but I’m familiar with the dual GNS setup in conjunction with the Avidyne Entegra and also the G500 together with a single GNS box.

My first advice is regarding the NAV1/NAV2 crossfill and autopilot coupling. I prefer to use the unit which drives the autopilot to also be my main interface box. The reason for this is, that a crossfill takes some seconds and if you input some new direct you can check the result immediately. This unit is then crossfilling its data to the other unit, but not vice versa. Reason for this is, that you always carry a current copy of your flightplan in the second box, but can still use it for other purposes (crosschecks, alternate calculations) without manipulating your main flightplan.

Then based on the fact that you have three screens available, don’t make the mistake and display three times the same stuff, but decide for a sensible logic. I would probably use the G500 for the map, the probably GNS530 as NAV1 and master always on the flightplan page and NAV2 for calculations, data overview, fuel calc, or what else makes most sense. Decide for something that makes sense and keep it as a standard procedure, that way you will look for the information always at the same place. And again don’t double information. E.g. on the PFD you see the ETE to next waypoint, then don’t waste space on a GNS box for it. I prefer ETA and DIST or CUM DIST on the flightplan page.

As I don’t know your overall cockpit design, I can’t help more detailed, but I am happy to discuss and argue about my proposal, also with inputs from others, because I guess there are other valid arguments doing it differently.

P19 EDFE EDVE EDDS

That’s a good point – to use the box with the smallest screen for textual data like the Landing Fuel on Board (LFOB) calculation from the fuel totaliser. That is how they break it down in jets: you have the “FMS” and you have the “PFDs”.

In fact it could get quite “interesting” because while some fuel totalisers only output their data (and the RS232 data can feed multiple boxes concurrently, even though this is not really supposed to be done on RS232 it does work for 2 or 3) some of the later ones receive the flight plan data, specifically I think the EET, and using this they can display the LFOB on themselves. But that input can come from only one device and the installer had to choose that. So if you don’t load the flight plan into that device, that function on the fuel totaliser isn’t going to work.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

@TobiBS . Thanks very much for your suggestions. It sounds logical and I’ll try this setup.
@Peter . Unfortunately I have no fuel totalizer on board. The Fuel calculation can still be done but only to a certain degreee as one input is missing. (this said, the fuel gauge is pretty accurate though).

EDRT, ELLX, Luxembourg
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