garmin - gnc355a
garmin - gns480
jeppesen gives a price of 360$ for navdata for both units
garmin is close to that price but for only the gnc355
garmin of course includes safetaxi, flitecharts, other stuff. really don't know why i need these in panel
what exactly am i losing if i switch to jeppessen.
Your GNC355a wants to eat basemap, navdata, Safetaxi, obstacle and terrain (Flitecharts is a big screen thing). Navdata comes in both Jeppesen and Garmin flavors but everything else is only Garmin.
Your 480 wants to eat navdata but it is allergic to Garmin so its only choice is Jeppesen.
Jeppesen sells a small platter of only navdata for $366 that can feed both devices but it also sells a bigger platter of all 5 for $944. That one can also feed both. Garmin only sells database platters that can feed the GNC355.
If you go Jeppesen, you won't miss anything if you buy the big platter of data. If you go with the small platter of Jeppesen data, you'll miss out on Safetaxi, obstacle and terrain.
Theoretically, airports don't change much over time. Towers don't get built/demolished very often either. Mountains also tend not to move. For that reason, Safetaxi and Obstacle are on a 56-day cycle while terrain is only updated as needed.
Just because a database isn't updated doesn't mean you can't use it. However, I'd still avoid using any un-updated database (personal preference). You could buy Safetaxi/obstacle/terrain a la carte. You'd certainly save money on terrain. The current cycle is already 6 years old with nothing new on the horizon. I'm not sure you'd save anything on obstacle and Safetaxi, though. And you'd have to maintain separate navdata and "everything else" cards for the GNC355a (that's a hassle).
