g600 vs g500

[Marauder]

Heres the good news , The G600 comes with a GAD 43 and it is not required for a lot of installs , These are hitting the market for about 1000 dollars ... Money saved....

 

Yep, at $32k list, you get that with the G600. You will still need the GAD43e on the G500, emphasis on the "e" if you have any older technology you want to interface with the unit. This was Garmin's competitive response to the Aspen offering which was designed for retrofits.

 

That was the final selling point for me on the Aspens. I knew that I could not update my transponder & Narco Mark 12D+ at the same time as I did the GTN - without being tossed out of the house by my wife (it was bad enough that I had to live in the dog house for what I did upgrade). The Aspen open hierachy gave that to me without additional cost. They include an ACU or ACU2 with each unit. And if you purchase the second MFD as a 1000 series, you get a second AHRS.

 

If I was dead set on upgrading to the Garmin offering, I would pursue the G600. It comes with the GAD43e and has other features like the altitude preselect and boot strapping for radar.

[Yetti]

This has been the thing going through my mind.  As a newly minted person with a license to learn that really wants a Mooney..  And a career IT person who knows the life cycle of technology....   I learned on steam gauges and what is good about those are you can look at the position of a needle and not have to spend brain power to interpret what it means.   For race cars they will often turn the gauges so all the needles point up. then as long as the all needles are up, you can just drive.   as I transitioned to the G1000 you realize you have to interpret the tapes.  also it is a little annoying for perfectionist trying to keep 65 knots as you may be inclined to chase the tape.  The question I have is spend lots of money on fancy glass install or get a basic one to hook to the autopilot, then spend money on external devices that are much cheaper and easily upgraded?    I am starting to read on my instrument stuff and feel like I could fly an approach based off my Samsung phone/avilution set up.   coupled with ADS B via wifi I have pretty good internal and external situational awareness for under a $1000    There is a backup hand held GPS in the bag along with a hand held radio with nav capabilities.  Which I learned was important to not rely on systems in the plane on one of my first solo cross countries, the com 2 circuit breaker kept popping taking out the com 2 radio and the GPS (later found out due to overloading by adding the GPS and not rebalancing the circuit load, then they upped the breaker size furthering my distrust of A&Ps)  I continued the flight, because I had external redundancies.   I guess the best thing it to know the systems available to you and fully integrate them into the overall execution.

[Marauder]

This has been the thing going through my mind. As a newly minted person with a license to learn that really wants a Mooney.. And a career IT person who knows the life cycle of technology.... I learned on steam gauges and what is good about those are you can look at the position of a needle and not have to spend brain power to interpret what it means. For race cars they will often turn the gauges so all the needles point up. then as long as the all needles are up, you can just drive. as I transitioned to the G1000 you realize you have to interpret the tapes. also it is a little annoying for perfectionist trying to keep 65 knots as you may be inclined to chase the tape. The question I have is spend lots of money on fancy glass install or get a basic one to hook to the autopilot, then spend money on external devices that are much cheaper and easily upgraded? I am starting to read on my instrument stuff and feel like I could fly an approach based off my Samsung phone/avilution set up. coupled with ADS B via wifi I have pretty good internal and external situational awareness for under a $1000 There is a backup hand held GPS in the bag along with a hand held radio with nav capabilities. Which I learned was important to not rely on systems in the plane on one of my first solo cross countries, the com 2 circuit breaker kept popping taking out the com 2 radio and the GPS (later found out due to overloading by adding the GPS and not rebalancing the circuit load, then they upped the breaker size furthering my distrust of A&Ps) I continued the flight, because I had external redundancies. I guess the best thing it to know the systems available to you and fully integrate them into the overall execution.

For those of us who have flown a while, we have seen the evolution, if not revolution, in cockpit technology. Until this past December, I flew IFR with nothing more than a dual ILS, ADF and DME equipped plane. I had a yoke mounted portable GPS for situational awareness. It worked and will continue to work until they take the land based Nav aids away. My first major upgrade to my plane was an AP. For me, the ability to get a hand on long flights or ones where I needed to get weather updates constantly was money well spent. There are pilots who say "real pilots don't need an AP". I agree that you cannot replacing your ability to hand fly but to say you don't need it, especially in IFR is just don't right stupid. When you get a plane, you wil need to set priorities on where you spend your money first. Mechanical and airframe needs are always first with me. Then comes the updates and upgrades (like updating an engine analyzer or radios). The money will go quickly and you need to set your priorities based on what you are dealing with.