Something not quite right with our offering via Garmin then, they want four figures to keep our GPS legal. How does it work with Garmin, are you tied to them or can you go to Jepp?
That depends on which navigator you have.
I update my GNS430W with a Jepp subscription that I ended up paying around 400EUR for a year worth of updates (single unit, no charts, no terrain, just nav data).
US AOPA does not get you a discount with Jeppesen Europe. Jeppesen US prices seem to be somewhat higher for the same Europe coverage, so it comes to be a wash.
If you are VAT registered, tell them in advance, so they don’t charge VAT.
See some other threads on subject from not too long ago.
This is a topic where you can debate legality endlessly but against that you need to set the chances of
and both of these are exceedingly remote.
It’s not even like the Brussels attack of N-regs and its UK implementation on which we have thousands of posts, and which over 10+ years caused sufficient worry in many pilots’ minds to have spent € millions on obtaining the European papers (I was one of those, spending £ thousands) and which was never, as far as anyone knows, ever been enforced in any way, anywhere…
It’s not even like flying Annex 1 (etc) and ULs internationally without permit. The worry about this runs at a sufficient level to worry enough people to keep the market depressed in utility value. Enforcement would be really easy but actually runs somewhere below the negligible level.
There is probably not a single ramp inspector in Europe who would know what to look for in avionics databases. It would have to be a highly targeted attack by a national CAA who has been tracking “you” and is out to get you, and is acting on a tipoff, perhaps from a forum post.
I have occassionally flown with expired database cycles and have never seen a waypoint not in the database. But my AFMS – documented here – allows an out of date database cycle. And if yours has that concession then nobody can get you because they can never prove that you didn’t verify it preflight! Trust me… there are several people here who would report me to the CAA just for fun, so I would not post any food for them. And the CAAs read EuroGA daily anyway.
This is highly relevant. If your database is say $450 and you can download the 13 cycles over 18 months, there you go, even better 
An older thread on same topic has been merged into this one.
Surely it’s not a question of legality it’s whether a particular approach in your database is accurate. If not it becomes a safety matter not a legal one.
Unless of course the reason for the change is noise sensitive areas.
It’s easy to check the current IAP date. The AIP plates are free.
How many times have I seen a change, in 20 years? Never. Obviously one would not fly with a 10 year old database. But flying 1 cycle out, together with other measures, can reduce costs 2x or more.
Unfortunately Jepp own the whole business and do not supply IFR databases to non-TSO navigator mfgs. So if you fly an RV and want this functionality, you need to install at least a GNS430
I was thinking of it in the context of an examiner perhaps refusing to do (or sign off) an IR(R) revalidation because the database was out of date. Certainly one could not do an RNP approach as part of the test unless the database was in date and even I with my healthy disregard for rules would find it hard to argue that such an approach should be allowed.
For now at least one can technically get around that, not officially using the GPS at all and pretending to get downroute by traditional radio navigation then doing an ILS and either an NDB or VOR approach without loading the procedure. Then I think you are totally legit.
Not sure how I have got round it in the past, because the database in our TB10 has almost never been in date. Probably “ooh look, a squirrel” while I skip past the database status screen on start-up.
In real flying, I plan every route in SkyDemon beforehand and generally use IFR waypoints. That allows the same route in SkyDemon as in the GTN, since you can’t enter towns etc (at least not in a practical fashion) into the GTN. SkyDemon has the latest data, thus if a waypoint I’m trying to use is not in the GTN database it’ll become apparent on entering the route, but I’ve never known that happen. As well as IFR waypoints I often use airfields and VORs / NDBs, and these do not move.
Having done a little research, it seems that Garmin and Jepp carve things up such that Jepp get to sell the Europe-only stuff.
If I look at the options on the Garmin site, one can only get Europe as part of ‘International’.
On the Jepp site, one can buy the Europe-only nav database on its own, for this particular aircraft / avionics combo. It’s about $480 a year.
