Upgrade to the Garmin GTN 750 and GTN 650

[donkaye, MCFI]

As I mentioned in another post, after AirVenture was canceled for 2020, I decided to trade its cost for the cost of the GTN 750 and GTN 650 upgrade.  While Sarasota Avionics in Florida has an upgrade program, they weren't a possibility here on the West Coast.  I called around quite a bit and finally found an organization that was more than willing to do the exchange upgrade, Pacific Coast Avionics in Aurora, Oregon.  It turns out that they had provided one of the best bids for my GFC 500 autopilot upgrade, but they had so much business that I was going to have to wait 6 months for them to do it, so I went with Accurate Aero in Minden, Nevada.

I got what I thought was a fair bid from Pacific Coast.  They said they could do the job in about 3 hours including all the paperwork and could start the job in about 2 weeks.  That meant that I could leave early in the morning, fly up, get the work done, and fly back, all in the same day.  I didn't want to stay overnight at any motel.  So, armed with face mask, Clorox wipes, gloves, and hand sanitizer I flew up on May 15th, the one good day between storm systems in Oregon and California at the time.  Due to headwinds the trip took 3 hours. but with gas at $2.99 the cost wasn't that much.  It was good to get back in the air and exercise the plane, which had been sitting idle for awhile.

Once there, the plane was quickly pulled into a new hangar.  Chad was the only one working in the hangar, and he took me to a private room where I set up to spend a few hours working on the Gleim FIRC.  Even though I renew my CFI through giving Wings Programs, I like to stay up with what is going on in the industry by taking their course yearly.  It takes a lot longer than the required 16 hours, but I have found the course to be useful.

I told Chad that it bothered me that my G5 altitude always varied from the G500 TXi altitude by more the 60 feet, and he said that he could fix it, but that it would take an additional hour.  I told him to go ahead and do it.

Being a PIA, periodically I"d go to the hangar to see how things were going.  During one of those times I asked him when my units had arrived from Garmin.  He said that wasn't necessary since they "keep the units in stock".  That took me by surprise.  How many organizations can keep high priced avionics like that in stock?

Although the installation is "plug and play" and the units have their own configuration modules to make for easy exchange, there were still some settings that needed to be changed.  Chad made the changes, calibrated the air data computer to correct the altitude deviations I had discussed, and finished up by mid afternoon.

Fuel was expensive at Aurora so I flew the 10 miles over to Mulino State to get fuel at almost $1.50 a gallon cheaper.  From there I filed through Garmin Pilot, picked up the clearance in the air, and headed home.

Everything worked perfectly, as expected on the way home.  Pacific Coast was excellent to deal with and I highly recommend them.  The units are faster, have better resolution (although I can't really tell),  have better software upgrade capability, and I have a new 2 year warranty.  The software is a little different from the basic GTNs with a database icon showing up on turn on that could make database updates a little easier for some.

All in all a very good day.  Finally, I think I am done upgrading (how often have I said that).  Well, maybe if Garmin comes up with a good autoland system for the Mooney....

[Oscar Avalle]

May I ask how much was the upgrade?


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[Jerry 5TJ]

[carusoam]

Great pirep For the installation details, Don!
 

All that in a day’s work... fantastic!

I saw Grimmy the reaper selling off a GTN750 earlier this week...

Same thing... Somebody was upgrading... and somebody else was getting a great price on a used GTN.

 

Upgrade as often as you can...  there will always be a market for the recent take outs...
 

I’m looking forward to your pirep on the new touch screen! 

Best regards,

-a-

[donkaye, MCFI]

1 hour ago, Oscar Avalle said:

May I ask how much was the upgrade?


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650 to 650Xi :  2,935

750 to 750 Xi:  4,960

But I had to pay for an expensive data card that I really didn't need, since I already had an extra card from the old 650.  In fact, I should have said I didn't want it.  My mistake.  Also I paid for 3 hours of labor.  If they made extra on the data card, so be it.  They did a very good job.  They required one data card back for each unit.  Since I had the 510, I didn't need a card for the 750.

Bottom line, it was more than Sarasota, but not that much more.

[eman1200]

....All that in a day’s work... fantastic!
I saw Grimmy the reaper selling off a GTN750 earlier this week...
Same thing... Somebody was upgrading... and somebody else was getting a great price on a used GTN.
 
Upgrade as often as you can...  there will always be a market for the recent take outs...

I would have thought the upgrade price included trading the old unit in...

[donkaye, MCFI]

38 minutes ago, eman1200 said:

 

I would have thought the upgrade price included trading the old unit in...

 

It did for me.  I think what @carusoam was saying was that someone was upgrading and their old unit was being sold separately.

[carusoam]

32 minutes ago, eman1200 said:

 

I would have thought the upgrade price included trading the old unit in...

 

From the outside, hard to tell the exact details...

But we do know...

1) Some people are upgrading...

2) Some GTNs are getting into the used market...

3) Alan’s unit above sold within a short period of time...
 

4) What does Garmin do with their pull-outs?   (Sell off in quantity to Grimmy..? )

A great sign for everyone...

Best regards,

-a-

[donkaye, MCFI]

7 minutes ago, carusoam said:

From the outside, hard to tell the exact details...

But we do know...

1) Some people are upgrading...

2) Some GTNs are getting into the used market...

3) Alan’s unit above sold within a short period of time...

A great sign for everyone...

Best regards,

-a-

Yes, I figured Pacific Coast could make about 4K on the resale of both units.  I didn't want to deal with that unknown.  So they bought the unknown risk for me.

[ilovecornfields]

Probably didn’t hurt that you didn’t pay sales tax, either!

[MIm20c]

I’ve been thinking about this upgrade as well. However, I was planning on only the 750 to upgrade.  Wondering if the interface between the 750xi and 650 would cause issues, now or down the road?