Another vote for Bournemouth Avionics at Lee on Solent. I have had two major refits there and have absolutely nothing but praise for them.
I have also recommended many people to them, and none have come back and complained.
GA_Pete wrote:
“Didn’t @wigglyamp have some Robin STCs?”I was advised by wigglyamp about some of the STC stituation issues for the Robin and have pursued some opportunities based on his sound advice, but have been a bit let down in terms of response from a couple of companies.
Wouldn’t his company be a good place to start?
No longer my company although I still help them out with writing STCs and some certification work. I will be very disappointed if you’ve approached them and not had a satisfactory response!
Peter wrote:
This is of no help to the OP but I can’t resist the observation that Garmin are only about 20 years behind Honeywell/King on this which had the official VRPs way back then
Wouldn’t this depend on the database (e.g. Jeppesen) rather than the box?
It’s inappropriate for me to single anyone out on here.
However regardless of the size of the job and the possibility of some of it being less than straightforward, once you agree to a certain path of action, it’s just polite and business like, to keep to some semblance of communication and progress.
I really appreciate the input on here thanks, and will be busy again on the phone this week.
Pete
The reason most of the avionics scene is so disorganised is because they have to make most of their living scraping out the bottom of the barrel, which is generally somebody who went for the cheapest of 5 quotes and turns up with a 30 year old heap which contains 20kg of wiring of which 5kg is actually connected at at least one end 
When you are trying to make a living out of that sort of work, customer service and project management go out of the window.
Wouldn’t this depend on the database (e.g. Jeppesen) rather than the box?
Sure, and for some reason Garmin (in conjunction with Jeppesen who own most of the data) chose to not provide this kind of support for outside the USA. They have the data – they have it on all their handhelds of recent years.
I have always found Gama Aviation at Fairoaks knowledgable and helpful. They have sorted some more obscure Autopilot and DME issues for me. Nigel the avionics Manager and Shaun are both very chatty and happy to talk… Give them a call 01276 859283
Robin do not have an STC for the Garmin GTN series of navigators.
We had to pay a German company (through Bournemouth Avionics) £1k to obtain the required paperwork for the GTN 750 fit in our Robin President.
VRP’s may be on the database now but I bet towns and other VFR features still aren’t.
Thanks to everyone for their input.
Its all useful and appreciated.
I’m learning that this avionics malarkey isn’t as straightforward as i had foolishly imagined.
Thanks for that information David.
Perhaps that could be an option for us too, unless the 400 and 500 are treated separately.
If this doesn’t work out well for me I would suggest you definitely ensure you don’t accidentally the keys in your President. :-)
Pete.
