Which Garmin db?

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
21,872
Location
west Texas
Display Name
Dave Taylor
Home Airfield
KMRF
530W
has not had a db install for 5 years.
need vfr/all ifr charts
USA only
not Jepp
trying to anticipate other questions.
Garmin has 13 Bundles, 8 One Packs, 5 530 Bundles, Annual Subscriptions, individual db's.
I'm pretty much just a Basic flyer, minimalist. What will I miss if I buy the $299 annual Navdata JS500WA-US?
 
I had to look up what I have. It's the "US Database Bundle" annual subscription for my GNC 355, costs $499 a year. Net net, that means I'm paying $200 more a year to bundle in Obstacles and Terrain besides the basic Navigation. You'll "miss" those two if you just buy the $299 navigation.

Is it worth it? Eh - probably. Can you live without it? Probably. But for all the costs we have with planes, it's not that much in the grand scheme of things. I'll probably renew it.
 
A leeetle bit annoying that you cannot proceed with the purchase unless you select the auto-renew subscription button.
Easy to switch off but I'm a control freak I guess, hate that it's not optional, during the checkout process.
Probably they think they are helping some users.
 
Yeah no it’s not helpful, an email reminder leading up to the expiry would be helpful. It’s not like those databases automatically renew.

I just found out I had duplicate subscriptions, paying twice for one thing, and that’s supposedly on me. But everything is set up to be a subscription hoping you forget about it and pay for it for a few years and possibly multiple accounts if you forgot your email or password or login details.
 
I don’t think the terrain is changing much, will it still display outdated terrain? You could accept outdated terrain and just do the $299?
 
mandm said:
I don’t think the terrain is changing much, will it still display outdated terrain? You could accept outdated terrain and just do the $299?
Click to expand...
That’s what i did.
Actually one of them had not expired. Prob terrain. I rarely fly low nuff in this plane to need obstacles.
 
With only a 530W, you just need databases, not charts. I don’t remember what subscription I had when I had only a 430W to feed but there were monthly navigation data and bimonthly terrain and obstacle updates. (One card got updated every month and the other card got updated every two months.)
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
That’s what i did.
Actually one of them had not expired. Prob terrain. I rarely fly low nuff in this plane to need obstacles.
Click to expand...
Obstacles update every 56 days. Terrain only updates as needed. Last was Aug 2020.

Basemap also updates only as needed, with the last one being July 2024.
 
I'd just subscribe to the database, $299/yr. If you want to bring things up to date for terrain and obstacles, you can do a one-time purchase if you wish. For IFR, you don't really need terrain and obstacles, but they are nice to have.

I have a hard wired Aera 510 in my plane, so I put terrain and obstacles on that, which is more affordable. The 430W gets databases only. FYI if you have older an terrain card, it may bork if you try to install new terrain data. It is a known issue.
 
WDD said:
Net net, that means I'm paying $200 more a year to bundle in Obstacles and Terrain besides the basic Navigation. You'll "miss" those two if you just buy the $299 navigation.
Click to expand...
You start to see the savings if you have multiple Garmin devices and you get the Bundle. I pay $699, but it covers my GTN, GNC and GI275.
 
Do Bundles offer savings if you have multiple aircraft with different model Garmin units?
 
Call Garmin. They will walk through the choices and get you what you need.
 
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