Robert M. Gary wrote:
In fact, the G1000's nav system seems to
be taken right out of the 430 but the 480 is entirely different. My
first impressions were...




3) I think there will be a larger ramp up time for students with the
480. In the 430 and G1000 I can sit down with a student behind the unit
and describe for them how to navigate the pages, use the cursor, etc in
about 10-20 minutes. The 480 relies heavily on softkeys. That
introduces another layer of complexity. Now the first question is going
to be "how do I get the button to come up". Even setting nav/com
requires the use of softkeys.

It helps if you were NEVER exposed to the 430/530 braindamage before
using the 480. The software simulator works well enough (as long
as you turn off multiprocessor/hyperthreading). While I had a little
experience using mine VFR, the instructor put me through my paces on
the simulator when I did my IFR training in short order (of course I
am a computer geek).


I understand the 480 came for UPS, I wonder if they bought it because
they wanted the technology or because they didn't want the competition.

I thought it was so they could get access to engineers that could
actually deliver a WAAS implemementation.

Another neat 480 feature is that it will sequence you around to the
missed approach point again without any manual twisting or SUSP button
mashing. This is accomplished by having a much richer database than
the 430.