Garmin 430 terrain upgrade

Hi Jason

I have a GNS430W which can be upgraded for terrain. However to get the the terrain card, I believe you have to go direct to Garmin. We get our map cards from Mendellhsohn, but they dont do the terrain cards.

In the end I figured for my kind of flying, SkyDemon and map MSA's were enough for me and didnt spend the money in the end.

GNS430 terrain is little value for money. Other solutions (Garmin handhelds, SkyDemon etc.) provide much more functionality.

OTOH, getting audio terrain warnings from something in the panel means less stuff to fiddle with in the cockpit.

A few years ago I did it with a G496 which turned out quite neat, but it is a fair bit of work, running the wires through the yoke tube along with all the other wires already in there.

TAWS / GPWS is something which just sits there, always on, and requires no interaction. It's no use relying on an Ipad or similar for such a function... a lot of the time the battery on some portable device may be flat, and anyway the Ipad won't be wired into the aircraft intercom.

It's good to have terrain warnings because one day it may well save your life. I can think of several pilots who got killed in the last few years who would not have got killed if they had this. All IR holders, too.

Unfortunately Garmin charge a lot of money for the TAWS option.

A few years ago I did it with a G496 which turned out quite neat, but it is a fair bit of work, running the wires through the yoke tube along with all the other wires already in there.

I have both a 430W with terrain and a 695 on the yoke. I decided to use the 695's terrain system because it is much better and had it connected to the audio panel. That was trivial. Nowadays one doesn't do this "wire through yoke tube" business anymore, it's tedious and can be done much more elegantly with a spiral cord (with plenty of spare wires for future projects).

can be done much more elegantly with a spiral cord

Only in one of these, maybe ...

I was also looking for a picture of a nice wholesome Russian woman farmer to go with the above but could only find internet dating sites with Russian farm women on them. Clearly, society has moved on from my childhood school education memories

I don't know about the Socata but in the Cessna/Piper universe one really doesn't do the wiring through the tube anymore. It has a lot of issues and it is the worst job you can imagine... I have a 12 wire spiral cord with 2 wires still available.

I decided to use the 695's terrain system because it is much better and had it connected to the audio panel.

How would you say it was better?

I thought the Garmin portables and the panel mounts used the same terrain data and probably the same software, but Garmin would never comment on it.

Supposedly, certified TAWS solutions are supposed to take into account the geometry of the currently selected instrument approach, etc... and also aircraft performance.

We supply electronic parts for tractors and combines so I know quite a bit about the industry. The GA world doesn't come close to the quality and technology in modern Ag equipment!

The terrain feature is a $500 add on for the Legacy GNS430 and is included in the price for the GNS430W. It uses the same database that the TAWS function uses, but there is no audio and it is much cheaper. The database card is programmed with a special Garmin Programmer that is $199 USD and is not the same one used for updating the aviation database from Jeppesen.