Anyone flying an IFD 540?
- Thread starter FORANE
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I was wondering if they had actually shipped any yet, them or King.
I don't know about King but Avidyne has shipped many. I believe last I read most all, if not all, pre-orders have been delivered.
Arrow115
Pre-takeoff checklist
I have played with a dual IFD install in a King Air that a buddy of mine flies. I didn't get to fly with them but everything seemed pretty straight forward. My buddy who has flown with them seems to like it.
Yes, the IFD 540 is out. Many are installed and flying.
There have been statements made by Avidyne folks on their forum that the IFD 440 may be certified by SNF.
rbridges
En-Route
If my 430 goes belly up and repair costs aren't practical, I would give the 440 a good look since it's a direct slide in replacement. I know very little about them, but I know a GNS650 would have the additional cost of installation.
NoHeat
En-Route
It is a direct slide-in replacement for a 430W. If you have a 430 you will require an antenna and cables, which turns the installation into more of a project.
Jim_R
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My IFD540 was installed in March. I am very happy with it so far. Is there anything specific you'd like to know?
Almost immediately after I got my plane back from the shop, I took a cross-country from Houston to Daytona. I had hoped to have time to fly a few VFR local flights for familiarization with the new avionics stack before taking it on a trip (I also got the Avidyne audio panel and transponder, and an SL30 replaced my KX155 so it would all fit vertically), but due to prior commitments I ended up leaving on a cross-country from Houston to Daytona 3 days after I got the plane back.
Flight out and back was fantastic. Ended up shooting an approach to 350' at Talahassee; IFD was very easy to use and everything worked great. I had originally selected in the RNAV 36, but then was given the option for the ILS 27 for a more straight-in appoach, which I took. Changing approaches was very easy and intuitive, and the unit transitioned from GPS nav to VLOC nav automatically as expected.
I was stepping up from a 430W to the 540, so was thrilled with all the new real estate available. Never used a 650/750, so can't compare against the modern Garmin competition.
It was the first IFD540 my avionics shop had installed. Techs and managers took the opportunity to play around with it in the plane. All said they were impressed with the interface and navigation, and said it felt very intuitive, even though it was very different from Garmin's approach. That's been my experience as well.
Almost immediately after I got my plane back from the shop, I took a cross-country from Houston to Daytona. I had hoped to have time to fly a few VFR local flights for familiarization with the new avionics stack before taking it on a trip (I also got the Avidyne audio panel and transponder, and an SL30 replaced my KX155 so it would all fit vertically), but due to prior commitments I ended up leaving on a cross-country from Houston to Daytona 3 days after I got the plane back.
Flight out and back was fantastic. Ended up shooting an approach to 350' at Talahassee; IFD was very easy to use and everything worked great. I had originally selected in the RNAV 36, but then was given the option for the ILS 27 for a more straight-in appoach, which I took. Changing approaches was very easy and intuitive, and the unit transitioned from GPS nav to VLOC nav automatically as expected.
I was stepping up from a 430W to the 540, so was thrilled with all the new real estate available. Never used a 650/750, so can't compare against the modern Garmin competition.
It was the first IFD540 my avionics shop had installed. Techs and managers took the opportunity to play around with it in the plane. All said they were impressed with the interface and navigation, and said it felt very intuitive, even though it was very different from Garmin's approach. That's been my experience as well.
Jim_R
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Garmin is certainly the 800lb gorilla in this space, but the Avidyne unit is not a second-class competitor. Differences between the two units are going to come down to personal preferences, not limitations in capability.
I think a big discriminator will be pricing. For new installs, there won't be much difference. But for those folks who want to move up from an existing 430W or 530W, the Avidyne units are going to be a compelling option.
Jim_R
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BTW, Aviation Consumer has a review of the IFD540 in the March issue. They seemed to be focusing on whether you should upgrade from a 530W to an IFD540, though, rather than how this unit compares to a 750.
For instance: In their green/red "stoplight" summary, the red item was, "If you only use a fraction of your GNS530's features, skip the IFD540." Well, duh. If all you use your panel mount GPS for is "direct, direct, enter", then whatever you have will work. That's a comment about the pilot rather than the box, though.
I was also surprised by how dated some of the article was. Avidyne was already working on the next two versions of the software when the unit was released (and publicly communicating the content of those releases), but there is no mention of that in the review. Regarding another coming improvement, one paragraph reads, "The 540 has inactive Bluetooth and Wi-Fi that's being saved for future connections. Could a keyboard be one of them?" Yes, in fact. It was announced over a month ago that all current and future owners would get a keyboard with their unit; a demo video is now available on YouTube, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p8d6EpdGpI
The biggest complaint the author seemed to have was in how "inefficient" the map was. Fonts are too big, symbols are too large, lines are too thick, he says. I dunno...maybe compared to a 750? He doesn't say. (Again I've never used one, so I don't know.) Coming from a 430W, the map feels fine to me. It's very easy to zoom in and out, so if there ever was some clutter I needed to resolve, I think a couple of quick pinch-zooms or dial spins (I haven't decided yet which I prefer) would let me see what i wanted to and get back to the overview. There are also declutter buttons always available to quickly select the amount of map and overlay data you want. Again, I think this is a personal preference point, and I don't particularly agree with his complaints, there. I've never heard that concern expressed on the Avidyne user forums, either, and there have been plenty of comments/suggestions there for how to make the box better (which Avidyne listens to, btw.)
For instance: In their green/red "stoplight" summary, the red item was, "If you only use a fraction of your GNS530's features, skip the IFD540." Well, duh. If all you use your panel mount GPS for is "direct, direct, enter", then whatever you have will work. That's a comment about the pilot rather than the box, though.
I was also surprised by how dated some of the article was. Avidyne was already working on the next two versions of the software when the unit was released (and publicly communicating the content of those releases), but there is no mention of that in the review. Regarding another coming improvement, one paragraph reads, "The 540 has inactive Bluetooth and Wi-Fi that's being saved for future connections. Could a keyboard be one of them?" Yes, in fact. It was announced over a month ago that all current and future owners would get a keyboard with their unit; a demo video is now available on YouTube, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p8d6EpdGpI
The biggest complaint the author seemed to have was in how "inefficient" the map was. Fonts are too big, symbols are too large, lines are too thick, he says. I dunno...maybe compared to a 750? He doesn't say. (Again I've never used one, so I don't know.) Coming from a 430W, the map feels fine to me. It's very easy to zoom in and out, so if there ever was some clutter I needed to resolve, I think a couple of quick pinch-zooms or dial spins (I haven't decided yet which I prefer) would let me see what i wanted to and get back to the overview. There are also declutter buttons always available to quickly select the amount of map and overlay data you want. Again, I think this is a personal preference point, and I don't particularly agree with his complaints, there. I've never heard that concern expressed on the Avidyne user forums, either, and there have been plenty of comments/suggestions there for how to make the box better (which Avidyne listens to, btw.)
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Jim_R
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No, I don't have an Aspen, or anything else in the panel to share ADSB with.
I did have the shop scar for the eventual installation of an Avidyne MLB100, which is supposed to be available "soon" per Avidyne, but of course we know how that goes.
That will give me weather and traffic on the IFD540. In the meantime, I'm using a SkyGuardTWX with iFly software on a Nexus 7 and an iFly 720. I'll probably continue to use some sort of portable receiver to drive wx and traffic on my EFBs...unless future Avidyne Bluetooth features enable the MLB100 to feed through to portable devices...hope hope hope.It's not the solution I really wanted, but it was the solution that made sense at this time. (I wanted a UAT-out solution, but ended up going with the Avidyne AXP340 1090ES transponder due to a package discount with the other gear I was getting.)
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Thank you for the post Jim.
I had a G430 and now a G430W in my plane and I installed a GTN650 in my wifes plane. The simulator for the IFD has some features lacking in the GTN such as route preview which I like.
I have a deposit on a IFD 440 and was interested in hearing from folks who have used one. I figured feedback might be best obtained outside of the Avidyne forum. Anything specific I would like to know...I think you have answered it. Just wondered if any issues were uncovered after flying with one which might lead to second guessing the choice, and it sounds like none have been.
I am disappointed in one regard though. Statements were made by the company that they support capstone protocol for ads-b yet the Navworx ADS600-EXP in/out which I plan to install is not compatible, nor are any others apart from their own MLB100 which is more than I am willing to pay for an in only solution. When I asked the reply was that "Capstone Protocol" is not standard and varies in interpretation and implementation from vendor to vendor.
Jim_R
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While I understand the disappointment re: Capstone, I think that blame has to be shared across all the entities that allowed a "standard" to be developed that wasn't actually a standard. I don't think Avidyne drove the boat in that regard, but surely they deserve a portion of the blame for getting on the train without foreseeing the inevitable wreck that has now occurred.
For what it's worth, to date Avidyne has consistently shown willingness to cooperate with 3rd parties for compatibility. They have not intentionally closed off their systems, developing proprietary interfaces and protocols for their components (like Garmin consistently does), nor have they charged arbitrary "unlock" fees to enable communication with otherwise-compatible 3rd party devices (like Aspen has done).
We'll have to see how that plays out going forward (the first announcement re: complementary Bluetooth/wi-fi devices is supposed to be "soon"), but so far, of the familiar names in panel-mounted Avionics (Garmin, Aspen, Avidyne, Honeywell/King), Avidyne has shown the least tendency to put up roadblocks to interoperabliity.
For what it's worth, to date Avidyne has consistently shown willingness to cooperate with 3rd parties for compatibility. They have not intentionally closed off their systems, developing proprietary interfaces and protocols for their components (like Garmin consistently does), nor have they charged arbitrary "unlock" fees to enable communication with otherwise-compatible 3rd party devices (like Aspen has done).
We'll have to see how that plays out going forward (the first announcement re: complementary Bluetooth/wi-fi devices is supposed to be "soon"), but so far, of the familiar names in panel-mounted Avionics (Garmin, Aspen, Avidyne, Honeywell/King), Avidyne has shown the least tendency to put up roadblocks to interoperabliity.
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