Dave;
From the discussions I've heard of, the avionics manufacturers view
working with the FAA as a great hinderance on what advancements they
are permitted to make. Antiquated rules and standards being enforced
by people without backbones or the desire to weather the criticism
that are sure to follow with whatever their decisions seem to be. I'm
sure we've all seen what can happen to a project when it gets hung up
in the bureaucracy , subject to a pseudo czar that may have a hardon
for a certain company, or worse, one that likes to fill their own
pockets for favors. With the degree of technology on the march as it
is, we the consumer must dictate not only to the feds, but to the
manufacturers what we desire to spend out money on.

On 7 Dec 2003 09:10:13 -0800, (Dave) wrote:

(W9MV) wrote in message ...
Excellent suggestion Dave, about a plug and play unit with the GMA340.

As far as trade ins, we really would rely on our dealer network to work those
details, the manufacturer typically isn't set up (or at least we aren't) to
sell used equipment.

Question, assuming you could get say, $800 or more for the sale of your current
GMA340 on ebay, would you be willing to invest $800 or less (depending upon how
much you get from the sale of the GMA340) for such a plug and play unit?

Mark Scheuer
PS Engineering, Inc.
www.ps-engineering.com

Hi Mark - That might be tempting. The GMA340 was about $1200, if I
recall correctly. So, the step up price shouldn't be any more than
the difference between the used sale price and the new 7000 unit.

My biggest beef with the Avionics industry, in general, is that it
seems a lot of mfg's have gone their own way, leaving comptibility in
the dust. This applies more to the datalink technologies, with King,
Garmin/Apollo and Avidyne all going their own ways. It would have
been more prudent, and probably cheaper for everyone in the long run,
for these companies to work with the FAA to develop a superior
datalink technology they can all use. Kind of like the HDTV battles
that consumed the 90's. At least now we have a standard that all TV
manufacturers adhere to.

With audio panels, it's not quite as bad. It seems you and Garmin
(and King, to a degree - even though their unit is yours with their
faceplate) really have given the GA market good choices.