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Garmin G500 versus G1000 (in a DA40)

We are in the market for a DA40 G1000.

During our search for a suitable aircraft we found that the extension options of the G1000 are very limited.
Only the DA40 NG comes with WAAS, and Diamond don’t seem to bother creating upgrade paths for the 1st Gen airframes.

Options like WAAS and Synthetic Vision are only possible via a very expensive STC.

An alternative would be to buy a basic six airframe and upgrade the avionics with retrofit glass panel, for example the G500 + GTN650/GTN750.
This will give us WAAS/Synthetic vision/ADS B in-out, etc.

So we have a dilemma is: Should we go for the DA40 with G1000 or go for the G500 retrofit option?

Some pro/cons:

G1000:
+ looks very neat
+ complete integration of flight instruments / nav / planning / fuel + engine management
+ Expected higher resell value
- Expensive to extend / upgrade

G500 + GTN-650:
+ Comes with a Garmin STC
+ Offers anything we want: WAAS / ADS-B in-out / Synthetic Vision
+ Easy to extend / upgrade
- Smaller display
- No integration with engine / fuel

Cost of a used DA40 G1000 or a DA40 + retrofit G500 seem to be similar…

What autopilot solution is possible with the G500? Does the G1000 version have the GFC700? I think that would be more important to me than the engine/fuel integration, which can be solved differently.

Flyer59 wrote:

What autopilot solution is possible with the G500? Does the G1000 version have the GFC700? I think that would be more important to me than the engine/fuel integration, which can be solved differently.

All aircraft we consider have KAP140. Only the DA40 NG has GFC700 but it is not within our budget.

Check out the GAD 43 adaptor I think it will give you a KAP140 interface.

Is the GAD43 applicable to a G1000? I know it is used with the G500, and is already included in a G600.

It emulates the King KI256 vacuum horizon + flight director, so you can remove that expensive item, and the vacuum system, but you have to install another horizon somewhere else, which is either a (cheaper) vac one or an electric (or AHRS) one with a battery backup.

Any GPS can drive a KAP140 without the GAD43.

Some people fit a roll steering converter (e.g. a GDC31) to get more precise steering from the GPS. But it isn’t really necessary; the NAV mode of the AP still works well enough.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

My impression with the avionic – airframe – engine symbiosis is very poor when it comes to garmin – diamond – continental

The process of upgrading a non waas g1000 in a da40tdi is a cannossa walk….

The software maintaince for tdi stopped when the da40ng hit the market. All da40tdi users will agree that some very nice features of the garmin 1000 evolution just passed by theirs da 40. There is no nice wind vector next to the HSI on the PFD, there is no nice magenta rhombus on the HSI indications the true track above ground (very handy while in holdings…) ect. One might think that that’s all not needed…very true…you have a wind information on the mfd map on the upper right hand corner. You also can display the numbers of actual track and desired track…and of course in the FLP section of the MFD you can select VNAV for your descend planing…

What it really shows is that you have an iPad 1 with OS3.×. Apple stopped support and you are doomed to use the software until the phone dies…nit an issue since the usage of a phone is maybe less than three years and you ll get a new one…with software upgrades

Same (kind of ) is also valid for the g1000 and the da40

The g1000 is not only a navigation system it also in cooperates the ECU and software for the engine operation. To get a continental engine certified on a g1000 da40 is quite an interesting ride through windmills which took continental quite some time …

So back to the question…

Fact one:
You want a da40
Fact two
You need WAAS if you want to fly IFR the coming 20years
Fact three
glas cockpit (preferable g1000!
Fact four
No da40NG since its out of the budget option…

The hardware to upgrade a non waas g1000 and related work is something like if you buy a new g1000, additionally you should also,change the transponder, which according to Urbe will be certified this winter (ads in out integration in g1000) 30k€

Once the system (OS) of the g1000 is touched, diamond and continental have to approve the new set up, since it is the operating system of the plane (kind of)

As far as I understand from conversions and discussions at diamond, the company is not putting any effort into this segment of da40 upgrades…

They offer a da40tdi upgrade to a NG…(waas) actually, diamond is not doing that anymore but there is an approved stc for it and Urbe is certified to do the work…

A similar process is needed to get an approval for an upgrade from a da40tdi 1,7 to a da40tdi 2.0s. They only problem. Continental did not change anything with the avionics during this approval, which means the g1000 (Visible PFD and mfd) looks the same and offers the same old features like the 1,7 tdi…

I would be very curious on the thoughts of you guys here, how this can be solved? Is an avionics upgrade (certified) possible if the new avionics are not certified for the airframe it is used in?

Or maybe I should ask it like that? Did anyone ever actually upgraded their old da40g1000 into a waas certified plane?

Welcome you thoughts

Walter wrote:

I would be very curious on the thoughts of you guys here, how this can be solved? Is an avionics upgrade (certified) possible if the new avionics are not certified for the airframe it is used in?

Or maybe I should ask it like that? Did anyone ever actually upgraded their old da40g1000 into a waas certified plane?

I can answer that from a Mooney perspective – any change to the “operating system” has to be certified by the type certificate owner, as it also involves interaction with other systems. Eg. for G1000 / STEC AP Mooneys you can not upgrade from the GIA63 to GIA63W to get WAAS capability unless Mooney certifies it first – on the other hand you CAN do the upgrade with a GFC700 AP.

How many non-WAAS DA40 aircraft are out there as potential candidates for a WAAS upgrade if a third-party STC was available?

Avionics geek.
Somewhere remote in Devon, UK.

Wasn’t this also a very expensive gotcha on the G1000 DA42? There is a thread on that here somewhere.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

wigglyamp wrote:

How many non-WAAS DA40 aircraft are out there as potential candidates for a WAAS upgrade if a third-party STC was available?

All pre-NG DA40’s are non-WAAS. There is already an STC available (from Urbe Aero). It’s around 28K ex VAT for the WAAS upgrade.
They seem to use a G1000 software version which is used in the Chinese DA40. The software is described in MSBD4-045/8 section 1.8.3.

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