Future of 480

Hell yes! Our KX-170B (installed as Nav/Comm 2) works much better than our
fancy new Narco with DME. Damn thing is bullet proof. Pics up stations 40
miles farther out than the Narco. Obsolete it may be, but it's sure
servicable.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


The former. Obsolete has nothing to do with serviceable. Lots of
KX-170's
are perfectly serviceable. They are also obsolete.

Roy Smith wrote:
In article .com,
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:
The former. Obsolete has nothing to do with serviceable. Lots of KX-170's
are perfectly serviceable. They are also obsolete.

Well, ok but maybe no one cares. If a 430 works as well as today who
cares if its not as good as the new stuff. However, the concern in this
thread is that it is likely that today's IFR GPSs will be
non-servicable much sooner than previous generations of radios.

-Robert

Bob Chilcoat wrote:
Hell yes! Our KX-170B (installed as Nav/Comm 2) works much better than our
fancy new Narco with DME. Damn thing is bullet proof. Pics up stations 40
miles farther out than the Narco. Obsolete it may be, but it's sure
servicable.

Just don't remove it for any reason. There is a "self-destruct" feature
in the KX-170B. It is limited in the number of times it can be removed.
There is a turn limiter in the hold down screw that moves the tab that
holds it in the tray. At some point that limiter breaks off and the tab
that holds the radio in move up too far and crushes the frequency
rollers. There is no economic fix for that, and probably no parts to do
it. The solution is to buy an new radio.

-Robert

Roy Smith wrote:

In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:

Javier wrote:

Ten years from now, when your 480 dies and requires parts, they may not
be available, and if they're not, the unit would be useless.

I fully expect any GPS installed today to be as obsolete in 10 years as the
KX-170 is today.

I agree, but please watch your quoting. You replied to my message, then
removed my quote but left my name as the author, making it look like I
authored someone else's words.

--
Peter

"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Since the 480
install base is smaller than the 430/530 and since it does not seem
that Garmin wants to move the 480 software forward (all subsequence GPS
units have been based on the 430 software) he believes that at some
point 10 years down the road, chips will not be available.

Just thought of a more real possibility: At some point within those ten
years the current GPS terminal/navigation database may not be available in
a format that can be loaded to the 480.

--
Peter

As a data point, I used to own an airplane with a Northstar M3, which was
installed before GPS navigators were approved for approach operations. It
was subsequently approach-certified. It is now obsolete, hasn't been
manufactured in years, Northstar is out of the aviation GPS business, but is
stll supported with maintenance by another company, and Jeppesen still
provides approach databases for it. It uses a PC-card format for the
database.

This has been a 10-year life cycle, probably nearing its end.



"Peter R." wrote in message
...
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Since the 480
install base is smaller than the 430/530 and since it does not seem
that Garmin wants to move the 480 software forward (all subsequence GPS
units have been based on the 430 software) he believes that at some
point 10 years down the road, chips will not be available.

Just thought of a more real possibility: At some point within those ten
years the current GPS terminal/navigation database may not be available in
a format that can be loaded to the 480.

--
Peter

Javier wrote:
Peter R. wrote:
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Does that make sense?

It is not readily apparent to me why the availability of a chip ten years
from now will affect the 480 units that are installed today.

Ten years from now, when your 480 dies and requires parts, they may not
be available, and if they're not, the unit would be useless.

-jav
In 10 years I suspect the 480 will be as obsolete as the King
Nav/Com's it replaced.

Do you think the 430 has any better life expectancy. The thing
is already nearing obsolescence.

Bob Chilcoat wrote:
Hell yes! Our KX-170B (installed as Nav/Comm 2) works much better than our
fancy new Narco with DME. Damn thing is bullet proof. Pics up stations 40
miles farther out than the Narco. Obsolete it may be, but it's sure
servicable.

The Mark 12D+ was an unserviceable piece of crap from the day it
was released. We had a ship in our club that was down more often
than it flew because it had a full NARCOLEPTIC stack in it.

It was obsolete the day it came out, without an airways database.

Karl
"Ron Natalie" wrote in message
...
Javier wrote:
Peter R. wrote:
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Does that make sense?

It is not readily apparent to me why the availability of a chip ten
years
from now will affect the 480 units that are installed today.

Ten years from now, when your 480 dies and requires parts, they may not
be available, and if they're not, the unit would be useless.

-jav
In 10 years I suspect the 480 will be as obsolete as the King
Nav/Com's it replaced.

Do you think the 430 has any better life expectancy. The thing
is already nearing obsolescence.

Ron Natalie wrote:
The Mark 12D+ was an unserviceable piece of crap from the day it
was released.

Come on, Ron. Don't hold back. Tell us what you really think.