Pulled the trigger on Avidyne IFD 440

[Supercop0184]

Well I did it, haven't even had the airplane a Month yet and am spending money. LOL. But it's a great deal on some great equipment. Today I ordered the Avidyn 440, the Avidyne 340 ads-b out transponder, and got the Avidyne Skytrax 100 ads-b in receiver. Great deal is, order the IFD 440 and the axp340 together, get the  Skytrax 100 ads-b in receiver for FREE! I'm also getting 6k back for sending in my working garmin 430W unit. 

Im super excited to get these things in and installed. Pics will follow once installed.

[Danb]

Isn't this fun!

[Supercop0184]

18 minutes ago, Danb said:

Isn't this fun!

Oh yes! Just a bundle of money sucking joy!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA oh well - as my mother always said, you can't take it with ya.

[pirate]

Awesome your going to love it. Avidyne just keeps getting better and better ( recent announcement )  blowing competition away. 

[Supercop0184]

Yup, I definitely love the new IPAD connectivity!

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[NotarPilot]

I just picked up my plane last week for PCA after upgrading my two 430Ws to two 440s and an NGT-9000. So far I love it. I truly believe it was money well spent.

[gsengle]

I just picked up my plane last week for PCA after upgrading my two 430Ws to two 440s and an NGT-9000. So far I love it. I truly believe it was money well spent.

Hey share photos!

I'm considering Avidyne and have the Ngt 9000: how good/bad is the integration? What can you report? Thanks in advance!

[1964-M20E]

cool I like my 540 with the APX 322 remote XPNDR.  Nice and I get the larger 540 screen. 

[rbridges]

those of you that upgraded from a 430W, why do you think it's worth it?  Not arguing, just wanting to know since I have a 430W, too.

[LANCECASPER]

9 hours ago, rbridges said:

those of you that upgraded from a 430W, why do you think it's worth it?  Not arguing, just wanting to know since I have a 430W, too.

Pinch and zoom is nice, awesome screen resolution compared to the 430W. But the great stuff is just starting to come out - the IFD100 app will be a game changer.

[carusoam]

Don't forget the convenience of a wireless keyboard...

Best regards,

-a-

 

[NotarPilot]

21 hours ago, gsengle said:

Hey share photos!

I'm considering Avidyne and have the Ngt 9000: how good/bad is the integration? What can you report? Thanks in advance!

So far there's no connectivity or integration between the 9000 and IFDs. That's probably their only fault so far. As far as the Avidynes go they are VERY cool. They are set up that if I want to tune in a frequency or make a flight plan on the top unit the bottom one becomes the keyboard or keypad so you can see what your typing on the full screen on top. This works visa versa with the top and bottom. I think it'll take a little getting used to.  Other than that they are really easy to use. If fact they seem to be a lot easier to learn than the Garmin GNS series from my recollection.  I definitely need to fly with it more and do some instrument approaches. The OBS feature is a lot easier, IMHO, than how Garmin had it set up. All you need to do is push one knob to activate the OBS feature on the IFD.

I also love the frequency name underneath the frequency. Garmin seemed to pick up the idea from Avidyne and copied it for their GTN series (for later software upgrades) but I believe they didn't want to seem obvious about copying the idea so they went with the identifier versus the name. For example: Let's say you're flying around Nashville and you have 118.6 in the standby box. The Garmin GTN will say "KBNA Tower" while the Avidyne IFD will say "Nashville Tower" this is good for me because I'm horrible with airport codes outside of my region.

The NGT-9000 is very cool and if you can see my iPad you'll notice all the traffic being displayed while running Wing X Pro. You also get the weather on Wing X up to 250 miles out (Can't remember if it's sm or nm). Traffic is displayed with altitude, speed, N number or call sign and distance from you. 

Now we have a GTN-650 at work that I've used for about a year and a half, albeit only for VFR flying.  I have the IFD-440 and I think the IFD wins hands down in ease of use. The GTN might have a better screen presentation because I think the IFD screen is a little cluttered but I think I just need to adjust some settings to fix that. So far I only have about 5 hours behind it. 

For anyone considering the IFD, I would highly recommend. The avionics shop set my CDIs up wrong and my HSI off by 30 degrees and the GI-106A was off by about 5 degrees. I was able to go into the configurations and fix this myself. It's a pretty straight forward system.

L-3 had a promotion for about $1,000 off the NGT-9000 between the time I got my quote and dropped off my plane. Pacific Coast Avionics honored the discount and saved me some money, but not for long. Being that I had already budgeted a certain amount I opted to get a new EI ammeter to replace the old analog needle that bounced back and forth. And I also got the Mid Continent MD-93 digital clock as you can see on the far left. THAT is a very cool clock. It's bright as hell during the day and dims by itself at night. My wife thinks I'm crazy for getting excited over a clock. Call me a Mooniac. Guilty.

 

[PTK]

16 hours ago, rbridges said:

those of you that upgraded from a 430W, why do you think it's worth it?  Not arguing, just wanting to know since I have a 430W, too.

The slide in replacement gives the impression that it's worth it. But we all know the laws of nature boil down to: "...there's no free lunch!" 

The GPS nav/com navigator is front and center and the main driving force behind the entire panel. Garmin has mastered this. My question is why didn't G make the GTN slide in and pin compatible? Are there reasons? I would be very leary switching into a company who's in training with the center stack. 

Only my opinion of course! 

 

 

 

[NotarPilot]

9 hours ago, PTK said:

The slide in replacement gives the impression that it's worth it. But we all know the laws of nature boil down to: "...there's no free lunch!" 

I would be very leary switching into a company who's in training with the center stack. 

Only my opinion of course! 

 

 

 

PTK, you sound like you give something up by going with the slide-in replacement. I think screen size on the GTNs are slightly larger than the IFDs and in my opinion that's the only place Garmin may have beat Avidyne.

And I'm curious about your last comment about a company who's in training. Surely you don't mean Avidyne is new to the game.

Steve

[PTK]

Well, is there a GPS nav/com navigator Avidyne has offered before the IFD?

What did they drive the EMAX with? 

[gsengle]

User experience experience and avionics experience is relevant. The GPS part isn't hard.

Moreover would you give King advantage over Garmin for being first?

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[M016576]

11 hours ago, PTK said:

The slide in replacement gives the impression that it's worth it. But we all know the laws of nature boil down to: "...there's no free lunch!" 

The GPS nav/com navigator is front and center and the main driving force behind the entire panel. Garmin has mastered this. My question is why didn't G make the GTN slide in and pin compatible? Are there reasons? I would be very leary switching into a company who's in training with the center stack. 

Only my opinion of course! 

 

 

 

Ok, I yield: why did Garmin change the pinout and require a new harness for the GTN series?  I'd love to know....  Facts only, btw, not theory or opinion: sources requested from anyone who replies.

 

Speaking of which: is the WAAS antenna or comm antennas for a GTN any different than a 430W?  If the inputs arnt different, could the position accuracy be any worse or better?  I would say probably not, especially because it's a certified WAAS unit, but I don't know for sure: plenty of engineers on this board? Does anyone know?

[N601RX]

As an engineer who works for a company who also has a marketing dept I would say it was either one of two cases.  All the design criteria, features, menus and screens are detailed by marketing.  How that is accomplished is left up to engineering.

1. There was a marketing requirement for it to be different.  

2.  There was no marketing requirement for the pinout and the board layout guy did what was the easiest for him.

[gsengle]

Also installers, making more money, might just steer you to Garmin gear...

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[Godfather]

I think Avidyne is up 40% on sales this year which is great!  The crazy thing is garmin is just giving away sales by not building the 650 to fit into n the 430 rack.  

The connection and function of the waas antenna are the same I believe.  The combo xm / waas antenna was retained for my install and it works fine.

[NotarPilot]

3 hours ago, Godfather said:

I think Avidyne is up 40% on sales this year which is great!  The crazy thing is garmin is just giving away sales by not building the 650 to fit into n the 430 rack.  

The connection and function of the waas antenna are the same I believe.  The combo xm / waas antenna was retained for my install and it works fine.

That's great news. Competition is good for us, the consumer.

[bradp]

I think one of the top selling points for the 540 is that it can either be a slide in for the 530/530W or with minimally invasive surgery (really just plugging the harnesses into a new tray) a 430/430W can upgrade to a 540 given sufficient panel space.  The cost difference between 440 and 540 is washed given the labor savings in that circumstance.