Garmin Data Bases

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Tom Davis
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Garmin Data Bases

Post by Tom Davis »

I have a DA40. It is either a 2004 or a 2005 vintage and is equipped with a G1000. I have been flying VFR for a couple of years, but hope to get my instrument rating this summer. About 18 months ago, I got my Garman Data Bases updated, but they all expired. Since I have not been flying IFR, I have not bothered to update them. My expired data bases are: Flight Charts, Navigation Data (Jeppesen Americas), and Obstacle.

My uninformed intuition is to subscribe to the Garman US Lite PowerPak and to the Jeppesen Americas Navigation Data, but that intuition is more of a shot in the dark than any informed opinion. I will appreciate any and all suggestions.

Thanks in advance. Do not worry about insulting my intelligence or my sophistication. Any and all advice will be more informed than I am.

Tom
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Re: Garman Data Bases

Post by Gasser »

For now I'd just do the pilot pack that gets your your nav data for your IFR training. I wouldn't do it until your ready to start though. Just keep your electronic flight bag on your tablet up to date with VFR charts etc until you really need them. ..no need for you to have approach plates yet until your training and doing lots of approaches.
Once your training heavy and flying in the system, it's really nice to have the charts up on the MFD for me but mine are geo referenced. When I had my DA40, I only had them in my I pad.
IFR flying is a different world and so much fun. Good luck.
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Chris B
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Re: Garman Data Bases

Post by Chris B »

Hi Tom -

IMO, for VFR flying any of the good tablet apps are more than sufficient. If you fly in areas with towers, then keeping obstacles current is something to consider.

For IFR, my experience is different than Jeff's. I originally bought the pack with Flight (Flite?) Charts, but only used it twice on the MFD: once to confirm that it was working, and once to show a friend. That's it.

For me, I want the MFD to provide overall position (and engine) information, while the tablet shows the geo-positioned plates. But I know that some people prefer the reverse, so it really depends on your personal preference. That may be something that you need to experiment with yourself.

Chris
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Re: Garman Data Bases

Post by Gasser »

Chris, I totally agree on the G1000 that the charts are a waist. I never used them. In my Cirrus it's a different story as there georefersnced, and much easier to read and see. Also much easier to switch back and forth between map and chart. Secondly I currently have two 430W radios so I can still see position data on approach now in 3 places.
Very soon I'm also upgrading to a IFD540/440 radio upgrade so I'll have an even bigger touch screen so my MFD charts will be even better as I can display them on either the MFD or 540. Not sure yet which one I'll like better where once I'm up to full speed with them.
All that said as above, I would never do charts on a G1000. It's just not practicle IMO.

VFR, just do good flight bag electronics with obsticle data. Cheap and easy.
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Re: Garman Data Bases

Post by Gnomad »

Gasser wrote:Chris, I totally agree on the G1000 that the charts are a waist.
I agree as well. First year with IR, I flew my DA40 without G1000 charts and used Foreflight on my iPad for the plates. When I got my DA42, last year, I got the full pack of products. In the year the followed, I only used the plates on the MFD a couple of times. Much harder to see them from the left seat and much harder to manipulate with the buttons and dials on the G1000. So much easier on the iPad to pinch and zoom, tap tap to change to other plates etc... plus they're geo referenced on a GPS iPad. I had to re-up my subscription a couple months ago and ditched the G1000 charts. :thumbsup:
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Re: Garmin Data Bases

Post by Antoine »

+1
I wish I never bought the ChartView unlock. Back in 2009 I did this because my plane was to be leased back to an IFR flight school, but this deal fell through and I cancelled the subscription after one year.
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Re: Garmin Data Bases

Post by JimP »

I fly IFR most of the time and I agree that the best place for your approach plates is a tablet. I use an iPad mini with ForeFlight and back that up with a good sized Android phone running Avare (for free). Avare is much more convenient that the iPad for getting runway data and frequencies. I set the destination airport when I takeoff and it is one touch to get the A/FD information in a more readable format than the A/FD. It has a very intuitive charts and navigation back up as well.
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Rick
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Re: Garmin Data Bases

Post by Rick »

I had charts on the MFD, too, at one point - previous owner had purchased the unlock, and when I added SVT a few years ago, the charts just started working. Once they expired, they stopped working again. I tried them, but decided it was too much button pushing and too hard to see from the left seat. I fly IFR almost all the time, and use a Nexus 7 with Avare for all the charts and plates, plus my phone for backup. I love Avare, the app, charts, updates, etc. are all free and it does everything I need it to. In this mode, the only G1000 updates I do are the monthly Nav database (charts, IAPs) from Jeppesen, and occasionally the obstacle database.

I also usually print a page or two of IAPs for my destination if I think I might need them. I still don't completely trust all the electronics... :roll:
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Rich
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Re: Garmin Data Bases

Post by Rich »

Since I have the GNS 530W/430W I never have had the option to have plates up on the panel in front of me. So the only thing that gets updated regularly is are the NavData databases. It's been years, so I suppose I should maybe update the terrain DB, as well. But that's become less important, anyway.

But I have used a succession of EFB solutions over something like 10 years for this:

1. Motion Computing LS800 with Seattle Avionics stuff.
2. Garmin 695.
3. Garmin 795.
4. iPad/Foreflight/Stratus II

The first one, quite frankly, was very hard to use for a number of reasons. I won't go into the details, but this Windows/stylus unit truly sucked.

2 and 3 worked well, within what they were built to do. But no. 4 is the clear winner and is what I've been using exclusively for a couple of years, now. There's no point in getting into the which of the current tablet solutions is best. I've not tried any of the other iPad- or Android-based competitors.

Anyway, with the exception of 1.) the remaining solutions have been 100% reliable, as long as you manage battery life. For most flights I take, the iPad and Stratus have enough battery life there is no need for ship's or other power source at all. Plenty of battery power to last me all day, as "all day" is only maybe 3 hours of flying. (This power deal was not the case for the Garmins, BTW, as I found that I needed to keep them power to them for anything much over an hour or so.) No lockups, overheating, or program dropouts or any other reliability problems have ever occurred in 2, 3, or 4 in collectively hundreds of total hours of operation.

Even without these auxiliary units, however, the Nav Data in the GNS units provides a fair amount of what's in those charts. As a practical matter, mostly what's missing is altitude information and details of missed approach procedures. (Admittedly these are critical pieces of information to have in IMC.) The lack of airways in the units can also be a problem.
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