School me on the Garmin GDL-39

texasclouds

texasclouds

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Aug 23, 2018
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Bryan, Texas
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Mark
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Coulter Airfield CFD
Are these things any good? When did they come out?

I assume this model was replaced by the GDL 50. Someone gave me one with a bad battery and no 12V cord. Battery and cigarette 12V adapter is going to run about $170. Not sure if I really want to spend that much on old tech.

Also, could use it with no battery and a $17 eBay China-cord.
 
I had a 39. I now rock a 50.

The 39 had flaky bluetooth and could randomly disconnect in flight, super annoying. The battery wasn't super useful to me, in your shoes I would try it with the cord. With a stable connection, they're both great.

...assuming you're a garmin pilot user? I don't recall if these things work on foreflight or not.
 
Thanks, yes I have GP and also an Aera 660. ADSB weather and traffic would be great on XC flights.
 
Same cord as the 50 IIRC, you might be able to borrow one from a friend and try it out that way :)
 
I have a GDL-39 3D hard wired to my plane with an external antenna. Works very and provides data to my Aera 660 and Bluetooth works without issue to my iPhone and iPad. I use it with ForeFlight on the Apple devices.

I’d forgo the battery unless you plan to move it from plane to plane often and just use the 12V cigarette lighter.
 
We have one in the Citabria....have never had a problem with it.

Ditto the GDL50 in the 182....both sit on the glare shields.

Jim
 
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Love my GDL39+Aera 660 combo.
Heard sketchy things about the 50.
My Scout would be flaky and disconnect all the time. The 39 doesn't. The 39's GPS is flaky but that is likely a function of where I have it in my plane. In any case I just disabled the 39's GPS in ForeFlight and have been happy.
 
I’ve had a 39-3D in my Cessna for years and it’s been perfect. I just bought a second one on Ebay for my Cub. That plane has a 39R and G3X but the 39R doesn’t have ADHRS and I wanted my phone to be available as a backup to the G3X and the 39-3D was the cheapest way to get there. I’ve never used a battery. I like them hard wired.
 
We have had a GDL39 for 4 years now. My experience has been it has less bluetooth connection problems when running Foreflight than it does running Garmin Pilot (doesn't make sense, but that is what we have experienced). I switched back to Foreflight for that reason. It works great. The battery was a source of overheating the GDL39 for us, so we took the battery out and have had zero problems since. I really like having all the bells and whistles (especially traffic) so I would say it is definitely worth getting a cord.
 
What devices are you guys using that lose bluetooth connection? I’ve never lost connection with my iPhone or iPad using GP. What happens after you lose connection? Does it reconnect automatically?
 
Bluetooth connectivity has nothing to do with the apps you're running, its a hardware thing. I've never had an issue with my 39. It sits on the dash, hardwired. Android tablet and Pilot.
 
My connection problems were running Garmin Pilot on an iPad Mini 4. I had to turn off the GDL39 and reboot it to reconnect. I discovered that with the GDL39 sitting on the glareshield on top of the battery, the GDL39 was overheating. The avionics shop should have known better, but maybe they had never run into this before. Garmin was no help either. After I removed the battery, the dropped connection issue got a LOT less frequent, but still happened occasionally. Knock on wood, but so far with Foreflight, I haven't had a dissconnect. Whether it is the hardware of software or airplane vibration of just bad ju ju, I don't know. Just my experience (a sample size of one).
 
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