GTN 750 to GTN 750 Xi Upgrade

[Little Dipper]

Sarasota Avionics is advertising upgrades for both the GTN 650 & 750 to the 650 & 750 XI Series at a very attractive price.   The sale ends tomorrow and  I am seriously considering making the switch.    Has anyone else made this upgrade and was it worth it?  Looking for thoughts opinions and advice.

Norm Clemmer

N995K

[donkaye]

36 minutes ago, Little Dipper said:

Sarasota Avionics is advertising upgrades for both the GTN 650 & 750 to the 650 & 750 XI Series at a very attractive price.   The sale ends tomorrow and  I am seriously considering making the switch.    Has anyone else made this upgrade and was it worth it?  Looking for thoughts opinions and advice.

Norm Clemmer

N995K

I had mine upgraded by Pacific Coast Avionics in Oregon last year.  They took my older units in trade.  The trade was comparable to that of Sarasota Avionics' offer last year.  I personally would recommend the upgrade.  All new software upgrades are not necessarily backwards compatible with the older units.  For example, the new Smart Glide is only available on the Xi units.  I expect other upgrades to become available only for the Xi units that have more processing power.

Having a good justification often works in upgrades.  My justification last year was that, since Oshkosh didn't happen,  I really wasn't losing any money by just transferring the money that would have been spent on Oshkosh 2020 to the cost of the upgrades.

[ArtVandelay]

I ordered it but haven’t gotten it yet, mainly because I wanted the smart glide feature. Faster boots and database updates wasn’t enough to get me to switch.

[Little Dipper]

5 hours ago, donkaye said:

I had mine upgraded by Pacific Coast Avionics in Oregon last year.  They took my older units in trade.  The trade was comparable to that of Sarasota Avionics' offer last year.  I personally would recommend the upgrade.  All new software upgrades are not necessarily backwards compatible with the older units.  For example, the new Smart Glide is only available on the Xi units.  I expect other upgrades to become available only for the Xi units that have more processing power.

Having a good justification often works in upgrades.  My justification last year was that, since Oshkosh didn't happen,  I really wasn't losing any money by just transferring the money that would have been spent on Oshkosh 2020 to the cost of the upgrades.

Great advice.  I am ordering tomorrow.   Do you know if the "smart glide" is available yet for the Mooney Ovation?

Norm

 

[jetdriven]

I really wanted to do this, it's 4700 bucks plus your old box. But here's the thing I found, is he have to take it to Sarasota and have them "install it ".   The shops around here wants $6000 or more so I guess I'll wait

[Little Dipper]

It is not a real bad flight from Philadelphia to Tampa for this old truck driver in an Ovation  One tank of gas, a sandwich, a thermos of coffee and a gel pee bag or two.

 

 

[toto]

30 minutes ago, Little Dipper said:

Great advice.  I am ordering tomorrow.   Do you know if the "smart glide" is available yet for the Mooney Ovation?

Norm

 

Smart glide is offered as part of the GTN Xi software. As long as you have the latest software revision, you’ve got smart glide. 

(There is a standalone button you can buy for $130 plus installation, but that’s not needed for the smart glide feature.)

[donkaye]

3 hours ago, Little Dipper said:

Great advice.  I am ordering tomorrow.   Do you know if the "smart glide" is available yet for the Mooney Ovation?

Norm

 

If you have a GTN 750Xi, a GI275, and a GFC 500 you have autopilot control of the smart glide all the way to the center of the chosen airport.  If you have a GTN 750Xi, a G5, and a GFC 500, a software update to the G5 is required for AP control, and that isn't expected until the 4th quarter of this year.  If you don't have a GFC 500, you can fly the smart glide yourself, but won't have AP control of it.

[donkaye]

3 hours ago, jetdriven said:

I really wanted to do this, it's 4700 bucks plus your old box. But here's the thing I found, is he have to take it to Sarasota and have them "install it ".   The shops around here wants $6000 or more so I guess I'll wait

Yes, I needed to fly to Aurora, Oregon for the upgrade.  They did the upgrade in a couple of hours including configuration setting, and I flew back the same day.

[gacoon]

3 hours ago, Little Dipper said:

Great advice.  I am ordering tomorrow.   Do you know if the "smart glide" is available yet for the Mooney Ovation?

Norm

 

Smart glide has other pre-requisites other than just the txi box.  Research carefully to not be disappointed.

[carusoam]

Looks like the future of Garmin products is going TXi…

Lots of positive reviews…. Except for the price…. 

Integrating the whole thing with all the right boxes and options is getting to be a more complex job….

Best regards,

-a-

[toto]

7 minutes ago, gacoon said:

Smart glide has other pre-requisites other than just the txi box.  Research carefully to not be disappointed.

Here's a place to start.. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/aviation/smartglidecompatibility/

[PT20J]

Smart Glide is in GTN software version 20.20 which is currently available. Garmin recently updated the GTN trainer app to this version. 

Skip

[ArtVandelay]

Thanks everyone for your help.  I ordered both the 650 & 750 xi upgrade along with the one button for smart glide.   The words "good justification often works in upgrades" came in handy.  I used the cost savings of not sending people to a canceled convention this year along with the thought of having a ifr engine failure and having the smart glide option handy.  Thanks once again for everyone's advice.   I'm looking forward to the upgrade install.   Attached are pictures of my current panel.

 

What’s the purpose of the 3rd G5 in copilot panel?

[PT20J]

I understand that the Smart Glide buttons are backordered. Hoping to get mine before the panel goes in in a couple of weeks. Still mounting servos, OAT,  magnetometer, CiES senders, etc. Found out how Garmin keeps the GFC 500 price down -- they don't supply any hardware. Had to pay shop rates to kit up hardware from shop stock. Then the technician found out that the grip lengths specified for some bolts were wrong. And, of course, there are a few parts not in stock that had to be ordered. 

Skip

[Little Dipper]

4 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

What’s the purpose of the 3rd G5 in copilot panel?

I stuck an extra G5 on the right side because I enjoy flying from the right seat.    

[201Mooniac]

1 hour ago, Little Dipper said:

I stuck an extra G5 on the right side because I enjoy flying from the right seat.    

Did you get a field approval?  Garmin tells me the STC doesn't allow the G5 to be installed on the co-pilot side (even when no co-pilot side instruments are needed).

[Little Dipper]

2 hours ago, 201Mooniac said:

Did you get a field approval?  Garmin tells me the STC doesn't allow the G5 to be installed on the co-pilot side (even when no co-pilot side instruments are needed).

I believe you are mistaken.  The GFC 500 manual states the auto pilot is to be flown from the left seat only.   My G5 on the right side is stand alone attitude indicator and is not mated to either the 650, 705 or the GFC500.   I have seen numerous other aircraft that have had a backup attitude indicators (G5) installed on the right side.    

[PT20J]

44 minutes ago, Little Dipper said:

I believe you are mistaken.  The GFC 500 manual states the auto pilot is to be flown from the left seat only.   My G5 on the right side is stand alone attitude indicator and is not mated to either the 650, 705 or the GFC500.   I have seen numerous other aircraft that have had a backup attitude indicators (G5) installed on the right side.    

STC allows 2 G5s. Seems like a third without connection to any other systems might be considered the same as installing a standby attitude gyro, but perhaps one of our A&Ps could weigh in. Maybe it’s a minor alteration. But if you connect it to the CAN bus and the GMU 11 and the GPS, maybe it gets complicated under the regs. Dunno.

 

[201Mooniac]

15 hours ago, Little Dipper said:

I believe you are mistaken.  The GFC 500 manual states the auto pilot is to be flown from the left seat only.   My G5 on the right side is stand alone attitude indicator and is not mated to either the 650, 705 or the GFC500.   I have seen numerous other aircraft that have had a backup attitude indicators (G5) installed on the right side.    

You might be correct, I'm just referencing an email that Garmin sent me by Matthew Clark from Garmin in response to a question about it.  Here is the line from his email:

"As for installing a G5 in the co-pilot side, this isn’t covered under our STC but I have heard of people getting field approvals for this install."

[Stetson20]

So I'm a simpleton. I went to the Garmin website and tried to figure out the difference between a 750 and a 750xi. Could someone explain the difference in plain (simple) English for me?

TIA

[MIm20c]

19 minutes ago, Stetson20 said:

So I'm a simpleton. I went to the Garmin website and tried to figure out the difference between a 750 and a 750xi. Could someone explain the difference in plain (simple) English for me?

TIA

Come on over to the hangar Roy. We have a 750xi/750 stack you can play with.  

[PT20J]

This is on Sarasota Avionics’ website.

“High-speed processors cut boot-up time by 50% over earlier GTN models. And with almost double the pixel count of its predecessor, the GTN Xi series features wider viewing angles and one of the highest-resolution displays ever offered in this class of avionics.”

Also, you can get Smart Glide.

Skip

[PT20J]

And… what the heck does ‘Xi’ stand for anyway? It’s not Xtremely inexpensive.

[carusoam]

Wasn’t there a touch screen in there somewhere?

-a-