I previously posted about upgrading the avionics in 08Romeo and today I agreed to my plan 'B' with Red Eagle and scheduled for March 1. I am going to keep the Collins Nav/Com equipment since they both work and just upgrade the transponder so I can have the Zaon traffic back online. Besides, the Garmin 327 adds many features the Collins 950 did not have.
The second part of plan B is the Garmin 530 WAAS upgrade. The 530W is approved to fly LPV “glideslope” approaches without reference to ground-based navaids of any kind. The 530W features an advanced 15-channel receiver capable of five position updates per second, GNS 530W also meets the FAA's stringent TSO C146a standards for WAAS "sole means" navigation, providing vertical and lateral approach guidance into thousands of U.S. airports previously inaccessible in IFR conditions.
The GNS 530W is an all-in-one GPS/Nav/Comm solution. It will feature a WAAS-certified GPS, 2280-channel capacity comm and 200-channel ILS/VOR with localizer and glideslope. Traditionally it would take a host of components to provide the capabilities of this one smart box. High-speed 5 Hz processing makes navigation calculations and map redraw rates five times faster than earlier GNS series navigators.
The Breakdown:
Garmin GTX 327 $1000
Garmin WAAS Upgrade $2995
Labor 16 hr $1120
Misc items $85
Shipping $60
TOTAL $5260.00
It looks like I will have two 430/530 Data cards for sale soon!
2 comments:
Good choice. The WAAS upgrade is very worthwhile. In my opinion that's also a very good rate on the labor. Enjoy!
Geoff,
I went round and round and finally decided that this was the best bang for the buck. Besides, the 530 gets a good once over and the additional approach guidence is a good thing.
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