AdamZ
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Adam Zucker
Garmin to cease making the 530
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zaitcev
En-Route
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Pete Zaitcev
Since you ask, lots of people bought Apple products while better and cheaper ones were available. It's Garmin. One roughly knows what he's getting with it. With competitors you have to do this terribly difficult thing, called research. Most of them suck. Heck, I never heard of Aera. I thought it was a line of some handhelds or whatever.
Someone wanting an IFR certified GPS?
gprellwitz
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Grant Prellwitz
The Aera is Garmin's handheld aviation GPS that replaced the 496 style.
Of course, they do have the GTN series now that is IFR certified and touchscreen.
wsuffa
Touchdown! Greaser!
Some of us fat-fingered types are not touch-screen folks. Nor do we want to pay the extra money for same.
dell30rb
Final Approach
Just got a gtn 650 installed in one of the warriors i regularly fly. Its great. Touchscreen works very well
Piloto
Line Up and Wait
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Piloto
I have fat fingers too but because the Aera 560 uses resistive touch screen I can use the tip of my nails to click on the screen very accurately. Just don't trim your nails all the way down. Using your nails also eliminates the smear when you use your fingers. The Aera 796 uses capacitive touch screen so the nail trick does not work with it and you have to use your finger.
José
Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
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iFlyNothing
It doesn't surprise me that the 530 is getting axed with the advent of the 650 and 750. It's what you'd expect - a company is building a new product that supersedes the old product. Old product production is canceled. They'll continue to support the old product for a time, once most of them have been removed from the market, they'll cease support for it.
That said, I'm still really happy with my 530, and probably will be upgrading it to a 530W now that home field has a WAAS approach that goes lower than the ILS.
That said, I'm still really happy with my 530, and probably will be upgrading it to a 530W now that home field has a WAAS approach that goes lower than the ILS.
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jsstevens
And the more cynical among us would say "That's why they're doing away with the 530."
John
wsuffa
Touchdown! Greaser!
Try that in hard IFR, in turbulance, with a primary panel-mount unit. I've occasionally punched the wrong button on the transponder in cloud turbulance....
CJones
Final Approach
That was going to be my question for folks with experience with the touchscreens. Granted, the only touchscreens I have experience with is about an hour with an iPad and now my Droid3 phone. I can't imagine trying to tap in commands on a screen like on the 430 while in turbulence. I've been beaten around enough in clouds that it took all I had not to snap the knob off when dialing in a radio.
n20junkie
Pre-takeoff checklist
Its helpful to install a ledge under a touchscreen unit as a finger support.
I personally am not a touchscreen fan. But then again the G1000 took some getting used too as well. The 530 is a decent unit, but its screen was limited with its poor resolution, and its processor was pretty maxed.
Maybe the cheap guys can finally afford a 530w. Some people just need to have the new toy, and it will add a few older units to the used market.
I personally am not a touchscreen fan. But then again the G1000 took some getting used too as well. The 530 is a decent unit, but its screen was limited with its poor resolution, and its processor was pretty maxed.
Maybe the cheap guys can finally afford a 530w. Some people just need to have the new toy, and it will add a few older units to the used market.
TMetzinger
Final Approach
And the more cynical among us would say "That's why they're doing away with the 530."
John
I bet that parts supply for the 530/430 is getting restricted too, and since they have to keep a certain amount for repairs, it's time to stop manufacture.
Frankly, we're spoiled by how long the lifecycle of avionics is compared to other electronics. The more "digital" it is at heart, the shorter the lifecycle, in my experience, because the chipsets have limited life before a new chip is manufactured, and certified products can just drop in the newer/better chip as an equivalent.
I remember the stories of NASA cannibalizing 80's game consoles for 8080-series things (or similar) to keep the shuttles flying.
bbchien
Touchdown! Greaser!
Just wait until they announce same for G1000.....it'll happen soon enough....
jasc15
Pre-takeoff checklist
This question has been asked many times before, but why would anyone spend 10's of thousands of dollars for stuff that will not be supported in a few years?? One of our club planes has 2 Argus 3000's, and its kind of a joke among the members. Im sure it was the bees knees in 1994-ish. Nobody jokes about the 30 year old altimeter.
CJones
Final Approach
In the 'old' days (pre-electronic instrumentation), you simply had your instruments overhauled with basic gears and baffles. Now, if your instrumentation is electronic and the manufacturer decides not to support the software that it runs on, what happens when it crashes? You can't just find an equivalent sized gear or baffle and 'make' it work - you need that manufacturer's own software to run.
So what does this mean for G.A. which has almost priced itself out of existence? Good or bad? 1000hr TT airframes on the market with 'dead' $30,000 electronic instrumentation packages?
TMetzinger
Final Approach
I don't think so.
The G1000 is modular, so it will be possible to announce the end of sales for various modules, and a replacement component that will be similar.
Eventually Cessna will have to get the GIA-32 REV C instead of the GIA-32 REV A they're putting in now, but it will still be compatible with the other modules.
Cisco's been taking this approach in their enterprise switches for years - it was 15 years before they stopped selling the original backplane chassis for the 6500 series, and all the old modules work in the new chassis.
Now, I grant that the Cisco gear isn't certified the same way. But the G1000 is a system and the various parts are certified separately, so Garmin is free to revise a certain field replacable unit, certify it and show that it supports the same I/O as the previous rev, and ship it, and you don't have to replace your displays or other units.
dell30rb
Final Approach
cause it works really well? and adds safety features.
they are expensive but you can really get alot out of a full color touchscreen gps with terrain, xm wx, and that is certified for approaches.
on the gtn-650 it has a small box in the corner of the screen (in map mode) that displays the nearest airport, bearing and distance. You can set criteria like min runway length 2500 feet or that it must be lit etc.. touch it once and set up a direct course to it, touch again and you squawk 7700 and tune 121.5 ....
they are expensive but you can really get alot out of a full color touchscreen gps with terrain, xm wx, and that is certified for approaches.
on the gtn-650 it has a small box in the corner of the screen (in map mode) that displays the nearest airport, bearing and distance. You can set criteria like min runway length 2500 feet or that it must be lit etc.. touch it once and set up a direct course to it, touch again and you squawk 7700 and tune 121.5 ....
Andrew Sego
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AdamZ
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Adam Zucker
There are guys out there who repair and rebuild every thing from Radios, and OBS heads to engine guages for older model Pipers, Cessnas etc. AND they do it on a bench in their garage.
I wonder if such creatures will spring up who can fix the whosamawachit that went bad inside a 530 if Garmin ever stops supporting it.
I wonder if such creatures will spring up who can fix the whosamawachit that went bad inside a 530 if Garmin ever stops supporting it.
TMetzinger
Final Approach
Doubt it... this aint the type of stuff you fix with a soldering iron any more.
COFlyBoy
Line Up and Wait
But what fails on a GNC-430W or 530W?
I think most failures are one of the following (in my guestimated order of likelyhood):
1- Buttons
2- Displays
3- Cable Connections
4- Power Supplies
5- Antennas
999- Digital logic (including the GPS reciever itself)
1 through 5 are supportable by anyone with a soldering iron and reasonably good troubleshooting skills.
Item 999 is not supportable w/o replacing the board most likely, and will probably become obsolete, but Garmin can have an end of life run on that part. But, I've not heard of any GNC failures that were actually caused by the digital logic failing.
Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
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iFlyNothing
Well, there's nothing that's stopping you from simply installing a basic AI/DG/dual nav-com setup. You don't even need an HSI (note: if you're looking at overhauling an HSI, it's probably going to be only a bit more to buy an Aspen).
Now once you do that, you'll have a panel that's just as functional as it was 20 years ago, and then you could add a 496/696/whatever and you'll have a pretty good setup. You can also still install an old KLN90B if you want to get a cheap GPS. I still like the KLN94 in my Aztec.
Keep in mind that if/when we see FADEC engines hit the piston world, you'll end up seeing much the same phenomenon. But there still won't be anything stopping you from keeping a mechanical engine in your plane.
TMetzinger
Final Approach
2 - you won't fix a busted display without a full replacement, and that's probably one of the limited quantity items. And remember you must fix it with exact parts. So there are somethings that can be done at an ordinary bench, but only if you have the exact proper part. This isn't replacing one resistor or cap with a new one any more.
AdamZ
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Adam Zucker
Piloto
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Piloto
I had the same concern with touch screen and that is why I have the 560 mounted on the yoke where I can rest my wrist on the yoke. It works better than knobs on the center stack since you do not have to extend your hand.
José
Attachments
denverpilot
Tied Down
That's retarded.
If you're already talking to a controller you might want 7700 but not 121.5.
It should be three presses of the short-cut key, with 121.5 last. One change per button press. Not two.
Even worse, a good bounce in turbulence and you hit it twice instead of once and it raises your workload to put it back the way it was.
I already don't like that feature design at all.