Adding WAAS?

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BlueYonder
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Re: Adding WAAS?

Post by BlueYonder »

Thanks for all the replies! A great welcome, and very much appreciated.

Will find the thingy that allows me to subscribe, and do that -- I wandered off for a couple of weeks, and missed all these responses. Don't want to do that again.

I bought the plane to do my IFR training in. Looks like I've got to make a tough call on whether or not to spend the money for the WAAS upgrade. The plane is beautifully equipped except for this one detail.

Just flew it from its home in northeastern Arkansas to Fallon, NV via OKC, Amarillo, Albuquerque, and Vegas. The weather got nasty just east of Reno, and there's no way to get it home to Seattle until later this week, so it's now parked on the ramp in Fallon, NV waiting for me to go back and pick it up. But there's nothing like a long XC to get familiar with a new bird.

Will have more questions -- expect to be peppered with them in the weeks ahead. It's good to be here.
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N503TS
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Re: Adding WAAS?

Post by N503TS »

I can't say I missed very many approaches in 10 years and 2000 hours that WAAS would have got me in. Only 1 comes to mind into BVY where I had an alternate at BED. I was lucky though that the majority of airports I plan for has an ILS but 200' AGL WAAS minimum versus a 400' AGL non-WAAS but I have flown a lot of GPS approaches step down to minimums. Now having Synthethic vision which I did not have in my 40 I would say that's worth far more than having WAAS and a less expensive upgrade as it's just software. As a new instrument pilot your personal minimums should be higher than the published anyway until the comfort level increases.

Good luck with the new plane. The G1000 makes instrument flying a breeze compared to steam gauges.
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carym
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Re: Adding WAAS?

Post by carym »

N503TS wrote:I can't say I missed very many approaches in 10 years and 2000 hours that WAAS would have got me in.
Let me second that. I am not the most experienced pilot on this board, but I have been flying for more than 20 years, have over 2100 hours flight time, over 200 hours in actual, and there is not one time have I had to miss an approach that WAAS would have allowed. This includes NDB approaches early in my career, VOR and GPS approaches I have had to make in actual, and ILS approaches. Having WAAS may make things easier and more comfortable, but unless ILS approaches disappear you will vary rarely need the additional lower minimums of a WAAS approach over a GPS approach. Thus, I think you have to decide if the price of installing WAAS is worth the ease and comfort such approaches provide.
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Re: Adding WAAS?

Post by Antoine »

I think a good compromise would be to get the additional "situational awareness" of WAAS and synthetic vision on a tablet using Garmin Pilot or similar and a dedicated AHRS/GPS box. an ipad mini with a suction cup for example.
It wont allow you to legally fly a WAAS approach but it will give you valuable information.
Upgrading a G1000 to WAAS does not make financial sense to me. If you really want it, consider selling the plane and buying one with WAAS. I bet it will be cheaper...
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Re: Adding WAAS?

Post by CFIDave »

To me it's not about the difference in minimums, it's about the ability to fly constant rate of descent (instead of "dive and drive") approaches to smaller airports where there's no ILS.

The vertical guidance of LPV approaches (or synthetic glideslopes created as LNAV+V or LP+V), enabled because the G1000 has WAAS, are MUCH easier and safer to fly.
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Eric N
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Re: Adding WAAS?

Post by Eric N »

The GTX345R is available with built-in WAAS, for non-WAAS aircraft. Don't know if it would work, but it might be worth looking into swapping your non-WAAS 345 for the WAAS version--if it works it will be vastly cheaper than upgrading both GIA63s. Judging from some of the relevant posts on this subject, you might need some antenna work, as well, but still...
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Chris B
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Re: Adding WAAS?

Post by Chris B »

Eric N wrote:The GTX345R is available with built-in WAAS, for non-WAAS aircraft. Don't know if it would work, but it might be worth looking into swapping your non-WAAS 345 for the WAAS version--if it works it will be vastly cheaper than upgrading both GIA63s. Judging from some of the relevant posts on this subject, you might need some antenna work, as well, but still...
Unfortunately, the GTX345R cannot be used as a WAAS source for navigation. Among other issues, it is single channel (no redundancy). Garmin will not support or supply firmware to make it work for navigation.

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dgger
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Re: Adding WAAS?

Post by dgger »

Chris B wrote:Unfortunately, the GTX345R cannot be used as a WAAS source for navigation. Among other issues, it is single channel (no redundancy). Garmin will not support or supply firmware to make it work for navigation.
Yes, true. But the argument works the other way around: There is absolutely no reason to upgrade the AHRS to WAAS To get ADS-B-out. I did that (prior to the GTX345R coming out) in a bet to "future-proof" the aircraft. It was very costly and I cannot say I have gotten much out of it. So, I am with Phil and Cary here.

Dave, Sure: no WAAS, no vertical guidance. But then you might just fly the LNAV, descend in VS mode and get an approach that (from the perspective of flying) is reasonably close to the LPV that I wonder, whether dropping the 20 or 30 grand on the upgrade is really worth it.
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Re: Adding WAAS?

Post by N503TS »

I would say after having over 2000 hours in a non WAAS DA40 and many approaches that if there was one upgrade that I would get before WAAS it would be Synthetic Vision. Having had SV in my DA42 which is also non WAAS having guidance of SV is far more beneficial in hand flying approaches than WAAS would ever be. Being able to fly step down approaches with set altitudes and just fly the boxes is an awesome situational awareness. At your set altitudes you can also easily see the graphic of the runway end and put the green target dot on it for an easy vertical guidance in any approach.
A friend of mine just installed ADS-b in his plane so he wanted to ask the approach controllers how it was working. He asked Cape approach after taking off from Nantucket and they told him they did not have the radar capability to see ADS-b traffic yet! He then went to Boston approach and they told him "we don't use that- we just turn that off". Given that is the FAA really serious about mandating it if they are not using it already?
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ricksigler
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Re: Adding WAAS?

Post by ricksigler »

Sounds like it's about time to start writing letters to Representatives and the Administration to do something about this outrageous (in terms of expense) mandate. Sounds like the AOPA (that brought us the watered down and weak 3rd class medical revision) isn't going to do anything.

Rick
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