"John R. Copeland" wrote in message
...
"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
online.com...
John R. Copeland wrote:

The 430 cannot get that capability without being recertified under
TSO-C146a, and the 430 hardware would need to be replaced to achieve that
performance level. I can't imagine Garmin upgrading the 430 now that they
own the 480 design. ---JRC---

The 430 is scheduled to be WAAS-able next summer. The price I've seen for
this is $1500, and the unit needs to go back to "the factory" for this.

Another major difference for the IFR flyer between the 430 and the 480 is
that the latter permits airway-based route entry. That is, you enter the
route as it is filed. The 430 requires entry of each and every waypoint.
For long airways with many "bends", this gets annoying.

- Andrew

Your "airway" point in favor of the 480 is correct, of course.
However, I personally use vertical guidance on approaches far more often
than I use airways in my flight plans, so I value VNAV more highly.
I haven't navigated by airways more than probably a dozen times in the past
25 years.

I still think Garmin's unlikely to upgrade the 430 to TSO-C146a capability.
It doesn't sound like good business sense, when they now have the 480.
Recertification would be a colossal expense, and I don't see enough return
for it.
It took Apollo nearly a year simply to get approval for Software Version
2.0,
giving the CNX-80/GNS-480 the VNAV capability plus a few minor features.
If Garmin really were to issue the 430 upgrade by next summer,
they'd need to have it undergoing flight tests before now.
Maybe they have, but nobody's said so.
---JRC---

I don't know where you went to business school but, to me, it seems that if
you have an installed base of 45,000 units, then upgrading them for $1500
each is good business. Additionally they have commited to providing an WAAS
upgrade path for the 430 and have already demonstrated the hardware. I
don't know if airways will be part of the package but adding them is fairly
trivial.

Mike
MU-2