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GTN650Xi and GTN750Xi now EASA approved

Arne wrote:

RF legs

Already on non-Xi GTN

Arne wrote:

Overlay georef’ed Garmin or Jeppesen plates on the map

Already on non-Xi GTN

Arne wrote:

Telligence vocal commands

Already on non-Xi GTN

Arne wrote:

Programming altitudes at all points in the FPL (VNAV), that a GFC5/600 will automatically follow (don’t know about other A/P)

Already on non-Xi GTN

Arne wrote:

Visual approaches with guidance away from known obstacles

Already on non-Xi GTN

Arne wrote:

Rubber-banding

Not sure if it is on the non-Xi GTN

ELLX

@lionel I put the features I have never had the opportunity to try in a real plane. I have seen some of them in the sim, or suspected they’d already exist, but it’s good someone with first hand experience confirmed.

ESMK, Sweden

I checked on the sim, the non-Xi GTN already has rubber-banding (I never use it…). However, it is limited to snapping to points currently displayed on the screen (it won’t implicitly/automatically create a temporary user waypoint). So, for a VFR flight (or UK-style “not along Eurocontrol valid routing” IFR) you cannot use it “like in Skydemon or Garmin Pilot or ForeFlight” to, say, avoid a forbidden area, unless there happens to be an IFR intersection, or a VFR reporting point, or an aerodrome, that is conveniently placed. And that point must show at your current zoom level, as your map is configured. So for a map configured for VFR, you’ll have only only aerodromes and VFR reporting points :)

I installed the GTN Xi sim. Same behaviour for rubberbanding.

ELLX

You can create permanent or temporary user waypoints with a GTN using cartesian or polar coordinates, or by tapping the screen. Then you can rubber band a flight plan via that waypoint. On a GTN you can also define a user WP as an airfield, so the clever Telligence lady will tell you what time you’re going to arrive…

It’s a few more steps than to modify a flight plan on a tablet, but then it could be driving your autopilot at the time so perhaps best not to be able to do it inadvertently.

Glenswinton, SW Scotland, United Kingdom

Jacko wrote:

You can create (…) user waypoints with a GTN (…). Then you can rubber band a flight plan via that waypoint.

Good point. May require some back-and-forth between rubberbanding mode and normal mode, but works.

Jacko wrote:

It’s a few more steps than to modify a flight plan on a tablet, but then it could be driving your autopilot at the time so perhaps best not to be able to do it inadvertently.
  1. It is hard to do inadvertently; you need to push the “edit flightplan graphically” button.
  2. If you change your current leg, the modified leg is not activated until you go to the FPL and activate it. The active leg is still your old one, before modification.
ELLX

To be honest, when I look at the general limitations of GTNs (don’t get me wrong: They are great devices) I do not understand this rubberband discussion:
For IFR flights there is no Need at all for such a “free rubberbanding” mode as one will always fly via waypoints (or on vectors but then a rubberband mode doesn’t help either).
For VFR flights first thing you need is a map suitable for VFR flight planning and navigation. The map in the GTN in my opinion is clearly not suitable for VFR flight planning as it is not detailled enough, doesn’t show terrain altitudes, etc.
Therefore for VFR flight planning (also or even more so for changing a plan in flight) one always needs a (paper or electronic) map suitable for that task. After the (re-)planning one has to transfer the new plan from this map into the GTN – and as there is no way of finding the new navigation marks “freehanded” one always needs either existing or new waypoints. Therefore no need at all for “free rubberbanding”.

Or, to put it the other way round: If we miss the “free rubberbanding” mode in the GTN, we should not think about the GTN but about our approach to safe flight planning…

Germany

Malibuflyer wrote:

For IFR flights there is no Need at all for such a “free rubberbanding” mode as one will always fly via waypoints (or on vectors but then a rubberband mode doesn’t help either).

WX avoidance?

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Airborne_Again wrote:

WX avoidance?

How that? For tactical short distance WX avoidance (i.e. flying around a single Cu) I would not bother to use the GTN but fly by hand (or heading mode) around the cloud and behind that per direct to to the next planned waypoint.
More strategic wider area WX avoidance in VFR(VMC would again require better maps and therefore can’t be done on the GTN directly.

Still not see the use case for “free rubber band” course changing on the GTN – but sure I’m missing out something…

Germany

After the (re-)planning one has to transfer the new plan from this map into the GTN – and as there is no way of finding the new navigation marks “freehanded” one always needs either existing or new waypoints. Therefore no need at all for “free rubberbanding”.

I’m not sure that I’ve understood the above correctly, but I think this is what most of us do when flying with a GTN. Plan and or re-plan a route on an iPad, fire it into the GTN by Connext, then activate the desired leg. Any waypoints in the iPad flight plan which do not coincide with existing waypoints in the GTN database will be added to the GTN’s user waypoint list under an assigned name. Subsequently, all details of those GTN user waypoints can be changed.

Useful as Connext is, it’s always good to have a backup. So in case the iPad or Flightstream gateway fails, we should be able to enter and adjust a route directly on the GTN. Now that the GTN allows us to position a new user waypoint by tapping the screen, and then to rubber-band a flight plan leg onto that user WP, it’s a piece of cake.

Glenswinton, SW Scotland, United Kingdom

Jacko wrote:

fire it into the GTN by Connext
I would argue creating temporary waypoints on the iPad and transfering them does not require rubber-banding capability in the GTN. From its perspective, it’s all waypoints, some are not 5-lettered but who cares. Also, how many GTN users also have a Connext-compatible app on their iPad?
For rubberbanding to be advertised as the unit’s capability, it must be possible directly on-screen to any place. If all you can do is snap a segment of the magenta line to other intermediate pre-existing points, that may qualify as graphical editing of the FPL, but not rubber-banding.
It’s a matter of definition I guess.
ESMK, Sweden
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