Pondering G430W upgrade...

On Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:27:42 -0500, dave wrote:
I had my 430 upgraded about a month ago in my Bonanza.
snip
I was on the fence about the upgrade but I also
considered the fact that these radios will be around for a long time.

True. The 430/530 are extremely popular and I can't see them being
discontinued or orphaned in any meaningful sense. This upgrade is itself
evidence of that fact. Wish I could say the same for the 480, but I
think we all saw that coming.

When you sell your airplane, any savvy buyer will look at the W upgrade
as a plus.

Given avionics investments typically yield 50% of the initial value upon
resale and the value of the upgrade is now $3000 I suppose I could look
at it as a wash. I should be able to get back a significant percentage
of the original cost at resale time.

The last point for me was the terrain feature. My 430 did not have the
terrain option. It's standard on the 430.

We didn't bother with the terrain upgrade when it became available
originally so we're in the same boat. If the terrain warning logic works
the same as it does in the 396 portable it should be a nice addition to
the cockpit.

My original concern was that the terrain warning logic would be too
"chatty" and distracting, but from a brief overview of the pilot's guide
it almost seems that the opposite is true. The PDA logic graph shows
that the unit will let you be as low as 350 AGL five miles away from the
airport before it gripes. Little scary if you ask me.

I'm curious about others' real world experience with the terrain feature.

Penn Avionics did the work for me. Very nice folks to work with.

Yea, the team at Penn is great and our upgrade reservation is with them.
I've known Peter for a long time and he's always given us fair pricing.

He's quoting $1800 for the upgrade (reservation pricing from Garmin)
without new feedline, or $2200 otherwise. He did our original 430
installation back in 2003 so it's fairly recent, but I'm still foggy on
the feedline specs and whether we'll need to have the feedline replaced.
Guess I'll find out.

One additional cost for me is the new USB programmer, but I suppose I
would have had to upgrade to that eventually anyway as it's becoming more
difficult to find a PC-Card interface on laptops today and my five year
old laptop is just about done.

One perk of the upgrade in the 172 is that no annunciator is required so
we'll dodge that cost.

Doug
http://www.dvatp.com/

Doug,
I don't have much time flying with it and no IR time at all but I have
played around with the terrain feature. You can display aviation data
on the terrain page but you can't display any of the data fields.
Since the data fields I use are duplicated on the sandel 3308, I can
leave the unit in terrain mode. Terrain mode also offers a limited
field of view, 120 degrees, which is nice. Have you downloaded the
latest simulator from Garmin? If not, give it a test drive. I think
you'll like it.

I don't think you can wrong by upgrading. Good luck.
Dave
M35

Doug Vetter wrote:

My original concern was that the terrain warning logic would be too
"chatty" and distracting, but from a brief overview of the pilot's guide
it almost seems that the opposite is true. The PDA logic graph shows
that the unit will let you be as low as 350 AGL five miles away from the
airport before it gripes. Little scary if you ask me.

Doug Vetter wrote:
On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:23:18 -0500, BillJ wrote:

What is the 50% off deal. I got mine upgraded for the original $1500
price. What is the price now?


Current price is $3K (just for the hardware) because we're past the "cut-
off" that Garmin announced last year. I "registered" for the upgrade so
I locked it in at the lower price of $1500.

-Doug
http://www.dvatp.com/
My 530W upgrade was 1800 total, 1500 to Garmin, 300 was for the new
cable, antenna install and shipping. All done in one morning.
That is all. No certification problems

That's the starting cost. The "W" installation is many, many times more
problematical to get certified. The fact that you already have a 430
installed means nothing. Lots of owners end up installing new 406 ELT's
since the 121.5 ELT's interfere a lot with the new 430 and 530W
installs. Make sure you have a chat with your avionics shop before you
start.




Doug Vetter wrote:
All,

I'm still on the fence about doing the 430W upgrade. Money is tight as
always and I certainly haven't set the logbook on fire in the last couple
of years for various reasons. The upgrade is scheduled for late May and
I have the option of bailing on it without penalty, but at 50% off
current pricing it's a hard thing to turn down.

The most important thing to me is that it does not destabilize what I
consider to be the finest and most reliable navigational device I've ever
used. I've flown with the 430 in all weather...rain, snow, ice, etc. and
it's never failed to give me the course to fly.

I browsed Google groups but didn't really find any concise reviews of the
430W upgrade with the latest V3.0 software installed by service bulletin
740. Can anyone who has upgraded their box in the last few months and
shot some LPV approaches (translated: someone with real-world experience)
give a mini review?

I guess what I'm looking for is the simple acknowledgment that the box
actually does what is promised and doesn't have any critical bugs (BSOD,
etc.)

Thanks,

Doug Vetter, ATP/CFI
http://www.dvatp.com/