GNS530W or not

OK well I would install a 650 rather than a 530W. But maybe that is just me.

Maps can be done more easily and cheaply on an iPad. I can get much more functionality on Garmin Pilot on the iPad than any 530W. It can’t drive an autopilot but that is what the 650 is for.

I certainly wouldn’t, but it’s probably not just either of us.

Timothy wrote:

Peter,

I think that we are likely to be surprised how rapidly LPV takes over from ILS, even in the UK.

To Cat II/III? I don’t think so. For sure, the Cranfields, Biggins etc, but not the bigger airports.

Dave_Phillips wrote:

To Cat II/III? I don’t think so. For sure, the Cranfields, Biggins etc, but not the bigger airports.

True but for GA fields across all of Europe except Little England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and ROI the LPV will begin to dominate soon.

I was thinking of places Peter might likely fly to, but even the Heathrows will be looking at GBAS.

Looking at CD135’s profile, he doesn’t have an IR so cannot be flying Eurocontrol IFR.

Also he shows he is based in Germany so doesn’t likely have the IMC Rating.

So he cannot fly IFR at all (other than the German “IVFR” variant )

So he cannot fly instrument approaches either.

So it’s difficult to advise on the IFR aspect of it. His equipment carriage requirement (legally speaking) is going to be minimal and probably he can do all the navigation with a tablet running some moving map app

In terms of what might be reasonable equipment for a 172N (which is an IFR aircraft) and for resale value… If he is keeping the GNS430, that can be used as the interface for text entry and other avionics (e.g. fuel totaliser) and a GNS530/530W would be used to display the map. And a 530W would do LPV too.

The 530Ws hold their value well but it is likely to be a cost effective option.

Also one would think that database support for the 530W will last longer than for the 530.

As to where I personally might fly or not, I will judge that as and when I see anything develop. A lot of things in aviation have a very bright future – like nuclear fusion. Gloucester EGBJ has recently installed… an ILS! (the manager was on here a while ago explaining why). The French situation is IMHO rather special: they have a large number of ILS airports with very low IFR activity (many with little traffic of any sort) which are local taxpayer funded but whose ILS is centrally funded, and it was only a matter of time before someone woke up and this situation exploded.

Just a thought: how much of a PITA is the extra knob-twiddling for 8.33 kHz frequency selection on a GNS navigator?

On the GTN boxes it’s a breeze. Small, almost inconsequential, things like that, but they stack up.

Let’s put it this way… when the avionics guy did my radio annual he set my 430 to 8.33 kHz channel spacing. After twiddling the knob to tune in my first frequency, the next thing I did was to find the setting to switch back to 25 kHz. If I needed an occasional 8.33 kHz frequency in-flight, I would switch the box back and forth as needed. There is a lot of endless knob-twiddling required for 8.33 operations. A touch-screen or keypad (like on the GTX330 transponder) would be a much better solution.

For the benefit of others, to change the GNS430, you will find it listed under COM CONFIGURATION on AUX page 4 (Setup 2).

On the GNC255A its faster to select the 8.33 Freq. I keep COM1 (KX165) on 25Khz and the COM2 (GNC255A) on 8.33. For me its still not clear if one or two radio’s shall be 8.33 Khz capable for N reg (I know this debate was already ongoing on a different thread). The regulation is far from clear on this topic IMHO