SR22: Upgrade to WAAS

I have never encountered an approach that was not contained in the 430W, from the IAF to the missed approach holding. That includes procedure turns and DME arcs. The GNS430W does not know what the autopilot does, it just outputs its data. Maybe there is a config option, Jesse should know.

What is super annoying in the 430W is that when there are multiple options depending on the aircraft category, they are all available but not easy to distinguish in the list.

Peter wrote:

my preferred solution (2×IFR540) is not looking good, due to the large quantity of these which one has to get to get two that completely work. Maybe Avidyne will fix their massive QA issues at some point…

Now that is quite an assumption, a company fixing its product at some point. Do you think their plan is to conquer the market with devices that have a 80% failure rate? The moment they have it under control, the issue becomes completely irrelevant. Garmin had loads of quality problems with the GNS and especially the WAAS antennas by the way…

DME arcs are in the 430w database. Certainly a DFC90 can fly them. As with hold entries.

What is super annoying in the 430W is that when there are multiple options depending on the aircraft category, they are all available but not easy to distinguish in the list.

Applies to the normal 430/530 too.

IME, when there are two versions with different outbound legs on the teardrop, the CAT C/D is considered the “standard one”, so it sits on top of the list. The one with the smaller opening angle (CAT A/B) is always the second one in the list.

I know for sure that the 430W will fly the holds coupled (with the DFC90) but not the 430. Now, what does that mean, Peter?

The W has them in the database

What is super annoying in the 430W is that when there are multiple options depending on the aircraft category, they are all available but not easy to distinguish in the list.

Have they fixed the issue that if there is a BARO-VNAV approach charted for a particular airport, the +V approach (“advisory glideslope”) is suppressed? Almost no light GA can fly BARO-VNAV so this is a cockup. Garmin were aware of it and promised a fix. The +V is a great option to have for non-LPV (and non-ILS obviously) airports because you basically get LPV (well sort of, subject to not descending below the NPA MDA ).

Do you think their plan is to conquer the market with devices that have a 80% failure rate? The moment they have it under control, the issue becomes completely irrelevant. Garmin had loads of quality problems with the GNS and especially the WAAS antennas by the way…

I have difficulty unravelling the logic there but I think their plan is to get max money in quick while keeping a media lid on it for as long as possible. If I chucked out my ethics but remained in business, that’s what I would do. Nobody gets the Queen’s Award for Business Achievement plus a knighthood by trashing their company by telling everybody the product mostly doesn’t fully work at the moment. Loads of consumer IT gear has had similar problems but not much of it costs $14k per box. Obviously they would like to fix this (because it is bound to leak out eventually, even into the mostly shoe-licking aviation media) but evidently they can’t. The US dealer who told me this says it’s been going on since the start. I don’t get much pleasure from it because I was going to throw in two of them. Why 2? Because they fit nicely and would fit well functionally without any bodges.

I have never encountered an approach that was not contained in the 430W, from the IAF to the missed approach holding. That includes procedure turns and DME arcs.

DME arcs are in the 430w database.

Sounds like I have some issue with my database. I’m based at Cambridge EGSC, which has a 10DME arc for Rw23. I was really looking forward to using it – Cambridge is often a procedural service and starting the ILS from the NDB at the airport often involves quite a lot of extra, unnecessary flying.

Another possibility, which might also be relevant to other GNS users making an upgrade to the W version, is the navdata card and updating it. I’ve assumed, so far, that mine are correct, since they came with the GPS. I appreciate that the W card is a higher capacity. The upgrade process now takes significantly longer. But, I wonder, is there some limitation associated with the old Skybound card reader that I still use?

Flyer59 wrote:

Is it possible that your subscrioption is non-WAAS?

I thought that it had been changed because the update time (same PC, same Skybound card reader) is about three times as long as it was with the non-WAAS 530. I rang Jeppesen to change it, but sounds like it would be a good idea to contact them again to cheack that it did happen.

The issue where the Garmin WAAS navigators did not handle LNAV/VNAV properly had to do with incorrectly calculating the CDI deflection when the intermediate segment was greater than 7.0 NM. This was resolved some time ago in version 5.03 released in April of 2013. The current version is 5.20.

An autopilot that uses roll steering can fly lateral courses with curves such as a DME arc with the legacy GNS430. The GNS430W added the capability to fly holds included in approach procedures and curved paths such as a procedure turn or a teardrop turn. If you don’t have a roll steering autopilot or after market adapter, don’t expect the autopilot to fly curved paths. In most autopilot installations, roll steering is mutually exclusive with GS intercept and tracking.

In the US, it is not permitted to have category of aircraft based differences in the lateral procedures on the same chart. This is a drawback as there is no way to code them in the ARINC 424 database. IMHO, this is poor design of the procedure and procedure naming conventions used in many countries outside of the US.

There have been updates in the database card for the GNS430W/530W systems that require a new programmer. The new programmer is backward compatible with the older cards, but not the other way around, that is the older programmer will not work with the newer cards. The programmer is relatively cheap and only about $50 US.

Although the non WAAS antenna will function with the GNS430W, it does not meet the WAAS TSO standard. When you go the WAAS upgrade path with Garmin, they provide the new antenna as part of the upgrade. If you just purchase used equipment, you have to buy your own antenna.

Many thanks for the detailed explanation @NCYankee. I’ll check that Jepp changed my subscription correctly, get myself a new programmer and make sure the software has been updated to v5.20. Hopefully the DME arcs etc will then show up in the ‘select approach’ menu. Plenty of time for this in the next couple of weeks while the prop goes off for overhaul.