Garmin G-500

tmyers

tmyers

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Tim Myers
Who has experience with the G500 and how does it compare to the Aspen. What are its shortcomings and or strengths?
 
Parker Woodruff had one in a mooney before he sold it 8 months later (got a really good offer from a pilot who HAD to have just that set up). So you might ping him.
 
Tim, I've never flown the G-500. One of my friends upgraded his 340 from a single Aspen to a G-600 and says the improvement is striking. Bigger displays, etc. The one negative he told me (still being relatively new to the G-600) was that the amount of information was almost overwhelming.

As you know, I've got the Aspen and I do like it overall. Depending on the day, I go back and forth on wishing I did the G-500. Although once I have a double or triple Aspen, I might change my mind.
 
I fly with a G600 and love it, but I've never seen an Aspen in the flesh.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
 
I think to be fair you would need to compare the G-500 with the Aspen 1500. Both have a PFD and a MFD. the Aspen 1500 is less expensive than the G-500 and neither have 100% PFD backup.

The Aspen 2000 gives you a PFD and a MFD but the MFD can be switched to a PFD if the one on the left were to fail. I don't think this option is available in the G-500. If the PFD goes Tango Uniform you have to rely on your steam gauges.

I have been playing with the G-500 430W simulator for a while and it is pretty sweet.
 
tmyers said:
Who has experience with the G500 and how does it compare to the Aspen. What are its shortcomings and or strengths?
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Yep, I've got one. I looked at both. If you do the Aspen with 2 panels, you save just a little bit of money while getting half the screen size and those tiny fonts (I understand that Aspen has improved this since I was looking). I flew both of them before I bought, and there was no question which I would go with. If I would get a GNS-750 to use as an MFD panel, I'd consider the Aspen, with a 430 though, the G-500 is the way to go.
 
Are you think about putting one in your arrow? The reason I ask is because I have been think about glass for my arrow. Right now I am leaning towards 1 aspen. But if I wanted to go 2 screens then I am not so sure.
 
Arrow115 said:
Are you think about putting one in your arrow? The reason I ask is because I have been think about glass for my arrow. Right now I am leaning towards 1 aspen. But if I wanted to go 2 screens then I am not so sure.
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If you want two screens, make sure you understand the functions and the failure modes.

The G-500 has two screens, one ADAHRS. With Aspen, you can get two screens and one or two ADAHRS. The significance of this is that you can have true redundancy of your setup with the Aspen (each unit is independent although they work together), whereas you can't with the G-500.

To give an example of this, my Aspen fried itself last winter. Poof of smoke, it was toast. In the Garmin if a similar failure occurred, I'd be no better off. If I had a second Aspen, I would've just switched to that and no problem.
 
Very true but the Aspen 2000 is quite a bit more than the G500. Actually the deal I have had offered to me makes the G500 less than even the Aspen 1500 and just a couple thousand more than the Aspen1000 setup
 
tmyers said:
Very true but the Aspen 2000 is quite a bit more than the G500. Actually the deal I have had offered to me makes the G500 less than even the Aspen 1500 and just a couple thousand more than the Aspen1000 setup
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Something is wrong with the pricing... Unless Garmin is running a huge rebate, it should cost more. Did they include the 43e in the quote? You will need this to interface with your analog AP and Nav equipment (unless you went all new, including a digital AP).
 
What's the price of a G500? I'd thought it was in that $15-20k range.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
If you want two screens, make sure you understand the functions and the failure modes.

The G-500 has two screens, one ADAHRS. With Aspen, you can get two screens and one or two ADAHRS. The significance of this is that you can have true redundancy of your setup with the Aspen (each unit is independent although they work together), whereas you can't with the G-500.

To give an example of this, my Aspen fried itself last winter. Poof of smoke, it was toast. In the Garmin if a similar failure occurred, I'd be no better off. If I had a second Aspen, I would've just switched to that and no problem.
Click to expand...


Ted is correct. On my Aspen 2000 series I have full reversion capability, including moving the AP over to the MFD that becomes the PFD during reversion. The Garmin has 1 ADAHRS and if you lose the PFD, you are on steam. Also, the Garmin series does not have a battery backup capability (at least not as of December of last year when I had both Aspen and Garmin quoted).
 
tmyers said:
It is but he is tossing a 430w for the cost of labor
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I would make sure you have him quote everything in a formal quote. Many shops bring up "extras" or "you need this" stuff while they have your plane in a million pieces.

A 430W will cost around $7k plus installation.
 
I'm still thinking about these things, but I think when I do the ADS-B upgrade (which I'm tentatively figuring for next year) I might add another Aspen. I also want SV, and if I do the Aspen ADS-B box, it will display the "free stuff" on the Aspen. That would be very nice.
 
We've got the 500 at work. No complaints. Prefer it over the Chelton I used to use. Crystal clear display. Easy to navigate the menus. Easy to setup an approach. SVT, TAWS, TIS-B, XM WX.
 

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Ted DuPuis said:
I'm still thinking about these things, but I think when I do the ADS-B upgrade (which I'm tentatively figuring for next year) I might add another Aspen. I also want SV, and if I do the Aspen ADS-B box, it will display the "free stuff" on the Aspen. That would be very nice.
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And if you are a ForeFlight user, you can port it over with the WiFi option. When I went to do my upgrade, I was headed down the single PFD path because I did not have an HSI and to run the Garmin 650, I would have needed a new Nav head that was going to cost me over $1,500. The second unit is really nice to have and I like the redundancy. The only thing I would have done differently on the MFD would have been to buy the extra 2 hour battery backup.

Here is the 2000 on the ground with both in PFD mode. The MFD on the right is in "arc" mode instead of the compass rose for the HSI on the left.
 

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You can see the autopilot selection switch in front of the throttle. If the PFD fails, you press the red reversion button on the MFD and hit the "XFILL" button to pull over all of your Nav information and settings, then toggle the switch to MFD to have it take over AP duties. All seamless.
 

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Marauder said:
And if you are a ForeFlight user, you can port it over with the WiFi option. When I went to do my upgrade, I was headed down the single PFD path because I did not have an HSI and to run the Garmin 650, I would have needed a new Nav head that was going to cost me over $1,500. The second unit is really nice to have and I like the redundancy. The only thing I would have done differently on the MFD would have been to buy the extra 2 hour battery backup.

Here is the 2000 on the ground with both in PFD mode. The MFD on the right is in "arc" mode instead of the compass rose for the HSI on the left.
Click to expand...

For what I have right now, the second one would primarily be a backup. But having the WX/traffic from ADS-B and SV would make more screens really useful.
 
I also think if I do a 2000/2500 setup, I'll go for the external battery and do the work required so I can delete some of the steam. Not because I dislike steam, but more because of a real estate issue. Also I have a complete set of steam gauges on the right side, so it's kinda silly to need them on the left side as well.
 
The G500 kind of feels like a mini G1000. I don't have any experience with the Aspen to compare it to.

You can download the G500 simulator from Garmin. It's free, and has a little autopilot thing that lets you simulate flying around. It's actually very helpful and a good representation of the unit.
 
Ted and Chris, I will share some numbers with you in PM later. I value both of your inputs.
 
Thanks Chris, dads house is finally on the market and getting a lot of lookers. We are hoping it sells quickly.
 
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