My own 5 euro cents:

Garmin missed the boat on one "minor" point with both the GNS430 and
the GNS530... for something that is purportedly a "fully integrated
comm and navigation system" where is the DME? (Required for Airways
certification). GPS derrived distances are not DME, and in Europe are
not acceptable as a substitute. As a result, a VERY nice panel with a
couple of GNS530 is still not airways approved unless there is a DME
(doesn't necessarily have to be slaved), and hence another 1 radio
unit (height) taken up on the panel. If I'm not mistaken, the UPS kit
has both DME and transponder integrated... I personally prefer the
garmin kit though. Could the engineers at Garmin catch up with
everyone else please? /tongue in cheek

Leland
'71 PA28R-200




On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 07:48:57 -0400, John Mireley
wrote:

Richard Kaplan wrote:
Garmin's website now says they are "committed" to providing WAAS GPS
approach capability for the 400/500 series by the "end of 2004."

UPSAT's site states that their CNX-80 is WAAS approved now but I cannot find
an explicit statement that it supports WAAS approaches at this point.

Does anyone know for sure if the CNX-80 supports WAAS GPS approaches *now*?

In any event, can Garmin really be that far behind the curve as to plan WAAS
only fo rthe "end of 2004"? This seems very much atypical for Garmin and
almost an embarrassment for them.



Garmin lobbied the FAA on the final specs for WAAS so their current
processors could meet the spec. They lost. They now have to replace
the processors in order to meet the spec. I think the issue was that
they could get 3 updates per second and the spec was for 5. This is
from my memory of an FAA session at the Great Lakes Aviation Conference
back in January.