According to an article in the US AOPA mag… the very first IFR approach certified GPS came out in 1994 – the Garmin GPS155
Enroute IFR units were reportedly around for several years before that.
It’s quite astonishing how long it has taken to achieve a widespread European acceptance of this superb navigation tool.
Acceptance is still relative. I know FIs and old pilots who call it the work of devil.
A friend of mine used to have one of these:
on the dash of his VFR PA28 in the very early 90s. Revolutionary in VFR GA at that time. Those were the days…
I did my GPS IFR navaid rating in Australia with one of those Garmins. I think it was the GPS approach to Wollongong.
27 years ago now, and the use of GPS is still being debated 
A lot of these old boxes come up on a US ancient avionics site on FB, at silly prices given there is no database update.
I fly a lot with that in late 90’s in a C421. Loved it. It did everything I needed at that time. When I bought my first TB20, that was the installed navigator. Now my old Garmin sleeps in its tray, on my shelf. :) It had also SID/STARs too.
Me too, I had the 155 in my aircraft along with DME, VOR and ADF. No problem at all. Didn’t know any different until I started flying with G1000.
Seeing how difficult/expensive it is to upgrade the G1000, I wonder if we were better off back then.
I wonder if we were better off back then.
@gallois we were. For some of us, and I guess possibly @canuck or @Pilot_DAR, the Canadian IR back in the day required knowledge of the four course LF range (I only ticked the box in the clockwork Frasca as the nearest four course range was Castlegar). As time passed you had LORAN and Omega (the last quite essential in Africa). Being the ultimate essence of a non precision approach, you carried out the LF approach limited panel. Not sure if the Frasca had built in static to simulate the real experience during summer thunder storms in the Rockies.
Ubiquitous G430 came out in 1998… 
