A friend, now retired, was a Cessna dealer, who sold a few brand new 182’s, and took care of several Caravans. He told me that the G1000 installation in both airplanes seemed to be near identical. He asked Cessna is the database updates were the same for the two types – well… there’s a 182 G1000 data update, and a Caravan G1000 update – but, they’re the same – except for the price. So why, he asked, is the Caravan update so much more costly than the update for the 182? The response from the Cessna person was that Caravan owners would pay more…..
For my new GNT650xi, I am looking to minimize the annual database costs, i.e. get updated to the aviation database only. So no Garmin “bundles” or “paks”, etc.
Still, should I get these updates from Garmin or from Jeppesen?
Garmin seems to be only 261$ per year for aviation database only:
Jeppesen not so much different:
Is that really it?
But the point is: if I buy from Garmin, I guess I will have to use GarminPilot or similar for actually doing the database updates? I don’t really want to use that.
I’d rather just want to continue just using JDM and my Wombat for the updates. So do I have to buy from Jepp?
Any input from other IFR users of the GTN650 would be appreciated.
boscomantico wrote:
Garmin seems to be only 261$ per year for aviation database only:
The actual price with Luxembourg VAT (17%) is 299.01 EUR; so with German VAT expect 304.12 EUR. However, Garmin applies different prices for different countries depending on their purchasing power (not within the EUR area) and/or does not update prices following changes in currency exchange rates often. You can shop around giving addresses in different countries and/or places within the same currency/economic area where VAT is not applicable.
boscomantico wrote:
Jeppesen not so much different:
Is that with our without VAT?
boscomantico wrote:
But the point is: if I buy from Garmin, I guess I will have to use GarminPilot or similar for actually doing the database updates? I don’t really want to use that.
No, you can use Garmin Aviation Database Manager, a Microsoft Windows and MacOS X program. However, it is not able to download the database and then install them offline, you need to have an Internet connection during installation, which is major suckage.
boscomantico wrote:
I’d rather just want to continue just using JDM and my Wombat for the updates. So do I have to buy from Jepp?
Yes.
I have Garmin (some pack or other) and I use the Garmin Database Manager to create an SD card every month, which I use to update all 3: 650, 750, G500. I don’t use Garnin Pilot.
On the Jepp price you get the AOPA discount, which is another 10% I think.
Yes the plain NAV data has become quite cheap more reasonable in pricing (taking into account the aviation world pricing structure). I also don’t have any bundle anymore, but have my ForeFlight jepp charts separately.
Thanks all. Yes, the Jepp price is also net of VAT. But yes, I will get the AOPA discount.
boscomantico wrote:
should I get these updates from Garmin or from Jeppesen?
IME, Jeppesen has lower prices than Garmin. But I seem to recall that one of them applies VAT already to the database list prices while the other doesn’t do it until you actually pay, so be sure to check that!
boscomantico wrote:
But the point is: if I buy from Garmin, I guess I will have to use GarminPilot or similar for actually doing the database updates? I don’t really want to use that.
I have a GTN750Xi with an FS510 and a G500TXi with Garmin data and I have GP, but I haven’t used it to update the databases for at least a year because the Database Concierge function is so full of bugs that I often spend an hour or more on the phone with Garmin support each update that I try to use it. So for the last year or so, I just use the Garmin Database Manager to create an SD card and bring it to the airport. It takes me about 5 to 15 minutes plugging the SD card into the GTN750Xi and the G500TXi depending on how many databases need update, some are on a 28 day cycle while others are on a 56 day cycle. I just power on the G500TXi and GTN750Xi separately to update their respective databases. I am not a fan of loading the DB to one device and allow the system to transfer it to the other device, it takes too long and is unreliable. Since I am a ForeFlight user, I only use GP as a database loader, but since it is so unreliable, I don’t even use it for that anymore.
lionel wrote:
On the Garmin G500, the terminal chart is not even an overlay. It is a separate display mode. It is literally the chart bitmap, with an ownship symbol for the location of the plane. That’s it. No data from the flight plan, the navigation database, the terrain database, the the obstacle database, … is displayed.
While that is improved upon on the Garmin G500 TXi, which will overlay the chart on the map (Garmin FliteCharts as well as Jeppesen charts), with flight plan data, on the other hand Garmin FliteCharts is not fit for purpose in that they are systematically one AIRAC cycle late. I had it for a few months (being much cheaper than Jeppesen, and even more crucially saved me from several hours of life-sucking interactions with Jeppesen annually), and each and every time I flew to an airport that had had a change in their AIP charts in the current AIRAC cycle, FliteCharts (having the number of the current AIRAC cycle, and released literally on the day before the cycle came into validity) systematically had the old charts. In the end, I asked for and got a refund.
