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Matt Reeves wrote:
I am trying to decide between the 480 and the 530.
Matt,
Glad you asked. I put a Garmin 530 in my aircraft a year ago with the understanding that WAAS would be available as a hardware and software upgrade "First Quarter, 2006." I paid for the upgrade with the installation. I also purchased the XM weather and music via a GDL69A. As part of this package I got a good deal on a Garmin 396 that I have on the yoke. Here are a few thoughts on this installation:
The WAAS upgrade is still not available and it's not expected until Fourth Quarter, 2006, or later. Since Garmin has new MFD's and other products out, I'm suspicious enough to think that they might just forget the upgrade and attempt to move me "up" to another product.
The Garmin 530 operating system is cumbersome. It's workable, but was designed for weather products from a bygone era and by comparison to the 396, it's archaic. When do you twist and when do you push? Where did I see that screen to "request" the metars? Why can't I see metar information and radar depiction on the same screen?
The Garmin 530 only displays a small portion of the available weather information. Metars (graphical or text) and Radar. That's it. Text information is not decoded. The 396 provides so much more information from the same XM source: Airmets, Sigmets, Winds aloft, Metars, TAFs, Forecasts, Echo tops, Lightning, TFRs, etc.
There is no XM music selection screen. That means all you have is an up/down channel toggle switch to select among 170+ channels...with no indication of your current channel. Adding the music was an eleventh hour decision. It's really worthwhile. I have discovered that I like it, but my passengers love it. I'd recommend it.
The Garmin 530 is relatively slow, especially compared to the 396. I wonder what the 496 is like.
The 530 can only manage to hold 20 memorized routes.
For reasons neither Garmin or my avionics professionals can answer, the NextRad images that are depicted by the 530 don't match those on the 396. (Orientation and scale the same.) The 396 seems to me to be more reliable/accurate.
Still, for all of that, the 530 is a great box. I rely upon it (with the 396 as backup) and it gets me there. (At least, so far.) If WAAS approaches are really needed, then I'd be a little skeptical of the 530, the 480 is a more modern design. But I have no experience with the 480...so maybe somebody out there has info on the 480...
Barry Knotts
L-IVP, Conti-TSIO 550, building
Perrysburg, Ohio
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