Half true. Read the preamble to the regulation. If you have to hook a laptop to the unit via that cable, the new exception does not apply, and it is still maintenance requiring a log entry. Further, by removing it from preventive maintenance, it will take an Airframe mechanic to do that. Bad news for those with King GPS's.
Did you add your signature with a Sharpie on the LCD? At one point I was tempted to put a sticker on the panel with my signature and a note that said I made the last DB update on the date indicated by the GNS480 but I never got a "round tuit".
Are you certain about that. I don't see anything suggesting this unless you consider a laptop and cable to be "special equipment" and lacking a specific definition of that I'd opine that they are not. I also pretty clearly recall this being a discussion point in a NPRM response by the FAA where they indicated that using a laptop and cable was something a pilot could do.
Read the preamble. It's there.
I don't believe a serial cable is a "dataloader". A dataloader is a piece of electronic gear that costs many thousands of dollars and is used to update the DB in the FMS of a transport category aircraft.
I think that interpretation is wishful thinking. Someone is going to have to get the FAA to say for sure.
They came out and said "laptop." I think that means a laptop, but I could be wrong.
Right -- unintended consequences. Wouldn't be the first time. My personal guess is whoever wrote that thought everyone has a Garmin and just didn't know about the King KLN's. I think the FAA needs to set this straight, and I'm trying to get them to do that.
While that is true, it is also true that when issuing an interpretation the Chief Counsel looks to the discussion in the NPRM and/or Final Rule to determine the intent, much as the Supreme Court looks to the Congressional Record for the discussion of the legislators in enacting legislation. Point is that it can be read several ways, and there is no solid reason to believe that if it comes down to it, it won't be read per the cited discussion rather than what some here hope it means. That is why I urge caution before you throw away your little GPS logbook -- and it's really not that much of a burden to keep doing it that way until you're sure of the situation.
I think they also said "and dataloader" but I don't have the whole thing with preamble to read so I'm working from memory here.
You are free to go by your own personal interpretation of that regulation (and any other, for that matter). However, the FAA will go by its own interpretation, and generally speaking, the discussion in the NPRM/FR is the first place the Chief Consel looks when interpreting a new regulation like this. Caveat aviator.
Read what NoHeat quoted above in post 16.
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There is no FAA requirement to update a database in any GPS not used for IFR navigation. However, if you do update the database in a installed GPS, you must comply with the regulations on updating. What you do with a non-installed GPS is your own business as long as you don't try to use it for IFR navigation, which is prohibited regardless of database currency.
You've lost me.