Jeppen vs. Garmin nav data

[Rich]

The discussion is sort of muddled in the context of my situation, which is GNS530W/430W units in the plane and Foreflight for EFB (i.e., everything else).

GNS units are very limited in what they can handle, so no approach charts, enroute charts, almost all altitude data and lots of other information required for actual IFR operations is simply not there.

For the GNS units, I could save about $100/yr (roughly $8.33/mo) with Garmin over the Jepp updates IF I want to restrict myself to just US. Not a big savings and Canada is like, really, really close. Plus I presume I'd need to buy some different gizmo to update the cards, as I presume sure the Jepp Skybound adapter wouldn't be compatible. The next step for Garmin updates is Americas which is priced almost the same as Jepp.

For Foreflight, all the charts I need are included in the subscription. I could ante up extra $$ and get enhancements by dint of buying Jepp charts through Foreflight. Nothing changes in the GNS units, of course and there is no "Garmin" option in FF.

[jb642DA]

For our G1000, I purchased charts and nav data through Jeppesen versus Garmin.

Personally, I like the Jepp chart layout better than the Garmin (government charts). I especially like the Jepp 10-9A page which gives you landing and takeoff info, along with alternate use data and "obstacle departure" procedure info. It's nice having all that info on one page versus searching for it in different locations in the "Garmin" charts.

We are based "up against" Canada (KPTK) so needed the Canada data also - I think the Jepp subscription was about $200 more per year (and it includes all of North and South America) versus the price for US Garmin with Canada "added" on.

With the Jeppesen subscription came two additional Jeppesen chart licenses for "free".
I use one on my iPad, so Foreflight has both government and Jepp charts available on it.
I use the other license for Foreflight on my iPhone.

[CFIDave]

John:
You left out the most important reason for someone to prefer Jepp approach charts: you're an airline pilot accustomed to flying Jepp charts.

But Garmin NavData isn't any different from Jepp NavData (in those geographies where Garmin offers NavData); it's just cheaper.

[jb642DA]

Hi Dave -

You're right about the airlines and Jepps - in fact, when I first started using them, I didn't like them!!

I used "government charts" (Garmin) for my GA and military flying prior to airline flying.

I only swapped to Jepps, for my personal flying, when we got the 62 and had the Jepp Chart view included as an "option" (in hind sight, I could have saved some $ and skipped this option!).

Comparing one to the other, overall, I do prefer the Jepp charts, especially when I have to do a number of approaches in a day - This is a big advantage since the Jepps have a very consistent layout (and I really like the 10-9A data on the back of the airport diagram page!)

I did like the price savings of the Garmin nav data. Our 42 couldn't display the charts without buying a new "bigger" Garmin data card, so I used Garmin nav data. But for the 62, I found the Garmin and Jepp nav data & chart prices were relatively close when choosing the "on board chart" option.

Overall though, after flying the 62 for a few months, I've found I don't use the MFD to display the Jepp charts very often - I prefer to view the charts on my iPad. When I renew, I'll probably drop the "chart view" option and just buy the nav data, for a lower cost.

By the way, I just ordered the same setup you have in your plane to hold my iPad!! Thanks for the info on that!!

[Rick]

My annual Jepp subscription just ended and I decided to make the switch to the Garmin Nav data (less than half the price for the same data). But I just downloaded my first update from Garmin, and the SD card doesn't look like I expected. Jepp used to put a couple of 4-5Mb files in the ldr_sys folder with all the nav data in them. The Garmin loader wrote a tiny 4-byte file to the root of the SD card, and created an empty folder called 'ldr_sys' - at least, that's all I can see from my Windows PC. You guys that have switched from Jepp to Garmin - does that sound right? I haven't made it to the hangar yet to actually try to load the card...

[midlifeflyer]

Other than international ops coverage, I know of one difference. The Garmin implementation of the Jepp database does not include the localizer-only fixes for an ILS OR LOC instrument approach. Only the ILS ones.

The Garmin database, OTOH, lists the two forms of the approach separately.

This doesn't seem to be a huge consideration except in an IFR training environment.

[Keith M]

The Garmin loader wrote a tiny 4-byte file to the root of the SD card, and created an empty folder called 'ldr_sys' - at least, that's all I can see from my Windows PC.

You won't see any files in the ldr_sys folder with Windows Explorer, because they have the hidden (and maybe system) attributes set. To verify what's there:

• Hold down the Windows key and press R.
• Type "cmd.exe" and click OK.
• In the command prompt window, type "attrib D:\ldr_sys". (Change the D to whichever drive has been assigned to the card.)

You should see something like this:

H D:\ldr_sys\avtn_db.bin
H D:\ldr_sys\nav_db2.bin

The "H" signifies that the hidden attribute is set. Jeppesen used to do the same, but I don't know when they started creating them as normal files.

[Rick]

Thanks, Keith. I don't know why I didn't think to look for the files as hidden. They're all there, just as you said. I was just surprised to see an empty disk after always seeing the files from the Jepp download. I'll make sure it works later this week, but I expect it'll all go fine. Thanks!

[gordsh]

I updated my G1000 databases for the first time today (March 31 2019). Prior to this I simply had it done by the factory (after showing that I owned a Jepp/Garmin subscription) every time the airplane went to London, ON. Today I used my Jeppesen subscription to download the NavVata, Airport Directory, Obstacles, SafeTaxi, Terrain and Electronic Charts. NavData copied to the off-the-shelf SD Card and all other databases to the MFD supplemental Garmin Card.

Update seemed to go OK except that I have a small issue with my Flite Charts as indicated below:

Prior to the update my G1000 FliteCharts indicated - "Expires 28-MAR-2019"



After the upddate my G1000 FliteCharts indicated - "Chart data is out of date"



Could this be because I used Jeppesen Charts and not Garmin Charts? Does Jeppesen not supply both Charts and the G1000 figures out which one it is licensed for?

[gordsh]

Well I just got off the phone with Jeppesen 24 hours support and its as I suspected. Jeppesen does not provides Garmin Charts and so I have installed ChartView (Jeppesen Charts) in to a non Jeppesen licensed G1000. So I can either unlock the Jeppesen Plate feature on the G1000 or purchase FliteCharts (Garmin Charts) for the G1000 ad reinstall.

Does any one know the cost of unlocking Jeppesen Chart feature on Legacy G1000?