Garmin GNS 430 Question

[AndyFromCB]

The 430W installed in my Bravo was an older unit that was upgraded to WASS by Garmin. The one in my Arrow was WASS from the start. The Bravo unit seems to be slower? Or am I just seeing things? And it actually is slower, can they just simply by swapped by an A&P, both are 14v/28v units.

[fantom]

Might be that the Garmin is just having trouble keeping up with a much faster plane ;-)

Swapping one unit for another should be a simple plug and play, except for the poor guy getting your "slow" unit.

[AndyFromCB]

The poor guy would be me, keeping two airplanes for now. Need Arrow's useful load and for my 100nm run to Des Moines twice a week, it's hard to justify pulling the Bravo out of the hangar, plus as we know, one is always going to be broken ;-)

But seriously, when they performed WASS upgrades, was it a total board replacement or where some older, slower components reused?

Andy

[jlunseth]

I can't answer your question about whether older components were used, but I do know that the 430W is a simple insert into a standard 430W tray.  You should check with your a&p though, to make sure that the connections to the tray are not different between the unit upgraded to WAAS vs. a unit that comes as WAAS.  I doubt it, but you should check. 

Removing the unit is just a matter of using a small screwdriver in the small hole you will find somewhere on the face of the unit, usually along the bottom rim.  Uninstalling is a quarter turn, and I believe it is counterclockwise but don't really remember that part.  Make sure the new unit is properly reinstalled though.  It is easy to not snug the installation cam up properly.  The unit is a simple plug in, but it is held in place by a cam on that screw, that fits in a slot (true of most avionics), and that cam can be adjusted forward and back to snugly hold the unit in place.

[ToddDPT]

Ours had some problems due to what we were told was overheating.  We noticed problems not at the beginning of the flight, but sometime during the flight.  Also, our screen became very faded.  We placed a fan unit (not sure of the name or device) behind the panel and that solved the problem.

[jlunseth]

There is a small fan in the unit itself.  This fan can fail, either putting out too little air or none. 

[201er]

Sorry, can't be much help on the Garmin part although switching from a waas upgrade to a built in unit has eliminated little problems that would happen here and there.

Now what I'm surprised about is that you say you're keeping an arrow for useful load! The 1968 Piper Arrow I used to rent had a useful load of 950lbs. Meanwhile my 1978 Mooney M20J has a useful load of 989lbs! However, this is more than just 39lbs more payload since the Mooney can go 15% further on the same amount of gas or in other words use 15% less gas which increases human payload by another 36lbs (when comparing to arrow at full 48 gallons fuel and Mooney at 42 gallons to go same distance). That's 75lbs more payload that I can take the same distance on less fuel and faster. What's not to love about a Mooney!?

[Hank]

'What's not to love' is the fuel flow in his Bravo . . . and I suspect with full fuel, the useful load loses ~40%. We all know that we should park with over half tanks anyway, right, to preserve our tank sealant? Beginning next month when I get mine back, I will be much more careful about that; no longer taking after-work Instrument instruction, compliance will be simpler. Plus a 24-hour fuel pump is being installed at home, too.

When I did the WAAS upgrade, the box was pulled and sent off for a while. I thought the install time was used replacing the coax and gluing the new antenna into the roof. Memory says we used a very long 5/32" T-handle Allen wrench to tighten it up afterwards. But I didn't spend much time looking over the tech's shoulder, since I hate it when people do that to me at work--I toured a Lear a few hangars down, then ate lunch and checked back in.

[AndyFromCB]

My Arrow's useful load it 1030 on paper, 1070 when weighted last year (unofficial) so it's essentially full fuel, 4 people and small bags and 500nm range aircraft. N7627D does about 145kt but don't expect that from most Arrows. This one has every speed kit installed. Now in order for my bravo to pull this off, I could only put 27 gallons in it  (or 17 with TKS full) and I don't think it's certified as a motor glider. And while I don't have an issue taking off a few pounds overweight here and there, as per prior discussions, I have no desire to push it. So if it's just me, full fuel, if me and my girlfriend and luggage, we'll only take 70 gallons which gives us about 3 hours of flight at 175knots plus a healthy reserve.

[kortopates]

The older upgraded 430W had its hardware upgraded with the same boards in your newer unit. The newer hardware is what provides your increased 5hz GPS update rate from the former 1hz. You didn't express what made you think their might be a difference, but check your software versions. I am sure you'd like both of them to be up to date. They should be at v3.30  (maybe higher ?)- I don't recall if there is a newer version after 3.30 but 3.30 was a major mandatory update fixing some issues and providing support for LP approaches and other improvements. It was also free back around 2009 when Garmin released it - but maybe not now.

[jetdriven]

Perhaps if you fly that bravo slower you can take less fuel for the trip?  Also if my m20j weighed 30 lbs less than the licensed weight I would draw up new weight and balance paperwork.