"Bare Minimal" Required Garmin Databases

[M016576]

2 hours ago, donkaye said:

From a real safety standpoint, though, I think the best things to have been created in the past 30 years were in flight weather and traffic.  That opened up the world to what was going on outside, and our place in it.

Probably the most relevant piece of that post- the ability to get weather in real time and traffic point outs are huge for pilots, that would otherwise be available.

it’s easy to get that for an affordable price tag- stratus, stratux or otherwise, plus an iPad.

it’s unfortunate that avionics producers can’t come up with a way to sell certified avionics at a more achievable price.  Or that those that support ga avionics feel the need to gouge for database updates.  Unfortunately garmin’s avionics department is a relatively small part of their company. Even though I am not a fan of their products/UI, I do recognize the need for them as a company to continue to “produce.”

 

the world is running out of GA manufacturing and maintenance.  And as it does, the prices continue to go higher.. which continues to constrain production...... and the cycle continues (for better or worse)

 

[toto]

8 hours ago, M016576 said:

Or that those that support ga avionics feel the need to gouge for database updates. Unfortunately garmin’s avionics department is a relatively small part of their company. 

Interestingly, I think that Garmin had as much to do with driving subscription prices down as Seattle or anyone else. I'm sure that they didn't make any friends at Jeppesen/Boeing when they decided to compete with their own navdata product. 

In the early real-time wx world, it cost something like $450 per year per unit for a 430 navdata subscription, and $900/year for a 696 handheld, plus $59/month or whatever for XM aviator.

When Garmin started offering their own navdata, these prices were completely upended. Why should a handheld cost twice as much as an enroute+approach certified panel unit? And why should you pay separately for each panel unit in the same airplane? No idea. But once the Garmin data came out, it all went away. 

[donkaye, MCFI]

55 minutes ago, toto said:

When Garmin started offering their own navdata, these prices were completely upended. Why should a handheld cost twice as much as an enroute+approach certified panel unit? And why should you pay separately for each panel unit in the same airplane? No idea. But once the Garmin data came out, it all went away. 

Unfortunately, not at Jeppesen.  They used to charge about $62 to add a handheld like the 796 to an iPad full country subscription.  I thought that was a good deal.  I called them recently to change the 796 to the 760 and they told me it would be $751.  Since I already had an invoice for the previous amount, they summarily cancelled it, and said they had been making a mistake on the invoice for several years.  I had no ideal and obviously shouldn't have made that call.  Even for me that was outrages.  No way that much  for a handheld.  I canceled the 796 subscription, so they ultimately lost money on the deal.

[toto]

Just now, donkaye said:

Unfortunately, not at Jeppesen.  They used to charge about $62 to add a handheld like the 796 to an iPad full country subscription.  I thought that was a good deal.  I called them recently to change the 796 to the 760 and they told me it would be $751.  Since I already had an invoice for the previous amount, they summarily cancelled it, and said they had been making a mistake on the invoice for several years.  I had no ideal and obviously shouldn't have made that call.  Even for me that was outrages.  No way that much  for a handheld.  I canceled the 796 subscription, so they ultimately lost money on the deal.

I dropped Jeppesen like a bad habit as soon as the Garmin navdata became available. 

I was always astounded that Jepp's customer support was as bad as it was, given that (imo) they had a very superior product and a lot of experience in the business.