PIREP - 2006 O2 GX - G1000 WAAS upgrade in Europe/Germany

**MatthiasArnold** · November 20, 2020

Dear Mooniacs,

Introduction
As promised in another thread, enclosed a PIREP concerning the G1000 WAAS / SW 401.34 upgrade of my 2006 O2 GX (with S-Tec 55X) N913KS.
I share this experience because the overall situation here in Europe (number of M20Rs, number of MSCs, import/export issues, ..) might be somewhat different than in the US. When I bought N913KS this spring, I was aware (thanks to MS) of the situation with legacy G1000 and the discontinued offering of the WAAS upgrade. However, for many other reasons I decided to go for N913KS (still happy with the decision) and keep on searching for upgrade options.

Materials & Methods - Finding & importing serviceable GIA63Ws
Searching for serviceable GIA63W (011-01105-01) with 8130-3 certs (among others required to avoid import toll in the EU) I finally identified two units at ASAP Semiconductor Irvine/CA. Their price was 10AMU each, certainly at the upper boundary of the range.
After some negotiations (they did not move at all) I ordered the units beginning of September 2020. However, this was just the start of the purchase process. I paid in mid September using the money wiring service TransferWise, worked quite good.
In order to prepare the export license ASAP Semi started asking for a lot of information and documents. This was a pretty lengthy process and I provided documents over documents, among others: My German ID card (including the ID card of my wife), my German PPL license, my FAA license validation, all FAA Aircraft Bill of sales from the time when N913KS left Kerrville, my German VAT ID, .. Obviously the legal team of ASAP Semi was pretty "careful" about exporting GIA63W to Germany...
Meanwhile I felt somehow tantalized and asked for some prove if those units exist in reality - they did sent me some photos.. Besides the overall delay there were some reason for this feeling (remember, I already wired 20AMUs): I received a total of three different AWB numbers, one invalid, two stalled in the state "label printed".
However, after 6 weeks waiting and communicating I finally received the shipment end of October, six weeks after the money transfer. They were packaged in a very safe way, ESD & vibration protected, 8130-3 certs issued by Garmin included.
So - in the end they delivered what we agreed on - no complaints on the quality of the goods (transparency & speed of the process could have been better, though)!
However, for whatever reason FedEx did not provide sufficient information to German customs and 0.5AMUs came on top although 8130-3 certs were included.
For such goods you have to additionally provide the magic tariff number 8803 3000 10 0. I'm in the process of claiming back the toll - will take some months..

Materials & Methods - Finding someone to install & configure
Before ordering the GIAs I collected as much information as possible regarding upgrade process: SB, SW versions required, is my N913KS post or pre S-Tec rewiring, ..
Once I felt to have sufficient information and identified the aforementioned source for the GIAs I started the conversation with an avionics shop which is official Garmin partner and has FAA certified personnel & processes (will not disclose the name). I provided all the information which I collected beforehand but for several reasons I got the impression that it might be better to find another partner: they asked for prove that the G1000 in my O2 GX is a "legal" installation (well, what else, system id should be sufficient prove imho), they were not able to source the 401.34 SW package, .. Obviously they never did an Mooney O2 GX WAAS update before.
As a result I kept on searching for a partner and contacted Justus of ACG in Allendorf/Eder. ACG is an official MSC and Justus replied in a very pragmatic way: "I already made approximately eight upgrades or so. You'll get the GIAs, I'll get the antennas, SW, .. and will do the install." I ordered the GIAs..

Doing the install
Two days ago I headed to ACG at EDFQ with the GIAs in the baggage compartment. As soon as I landed we started the install. Swapping the LRUs, instilling the new antennas, no big deal - BUT.. doing an overall G1000 system update with boot block & SW upgrades for all the modules can obviously be a pretty frustrating task - Justus warned me beforehand.
Upload of SW packages & configurations fails many times for unknown reasons.. (I developed modular, computerized equipment for life science laboratories during my professional life and know something about the matter, but the G1000 was a new experience). However, after we got stuck with 401.34 (and contacting Garmin Europe in between) we finally decided to go back to 401.30. Doing so we were able to achieve a clean system install which worked (including the "new" GIA63Ws). Based on this clean install an upgrade to 401.34 was finally successful (but once again not straight forward).
After spending 1.5 days at ACG (and two nights in a hotel near by) I was able to fly back my WAAS enabled N913KS to my home base this morning. Everything worked like a charm and I'm happy to have the WAAS plus the upgrade to 401.34 including the new functions (data logging, TOC/TOD arc, holdings, vertical profile, .. see "easter egg" article). Now N913KS is the perfect IR cruising machine :-)

Resume
To keep a long story short

Exporting WAAS equipment from US to Europe/Germany can be nerve-racking (maybe for both sides)
To do the install you need someone who already did it several times in the past (e.g. a good MSC)
Justus and his team at ACG did a great job

Sorry for the long text, maybe it is helpful for one or the other on MS.

Regards,

Matthias

Edited November 21, 2020 by MatthiasArnold
Changed tax to toll

tmo · November 20, 2020

Great PIREP, thank you for taking the time to write it all up, and especially for the recommendation for ACG.

I chose to pay the duty (1.6%, IIRC, electronics) and save on not getting a 8130-3 for stuff I ordered - it might be more cost effective this way, and definitely opens up more sourcing options. I found it surprising that one has to pay extra for an 8130-3 on brand new, certified devices (EDM900).

**carusoam** · November 21, 2020

Great pirep Mathias! for the pain and success of finding, importing, and installing the G1000 WAAS upgrades...

Including the software update challenges...

Kind of a success story for Mooney G1000 WAAS upgrades... @Jonny might be interested in reading about... (some sunshine where gloomy weather is common)

Best regards,

-a-