Dual Gi275, gfc500, and ifd540

[teethdoc]

Will they all play nicely together?  
Looking at finishing out instrument and trying to decide on best panel upgrades for ifr flying.  Really like the ifd540 along with ease of replacing the  g530w with it.  That may be fine to get me where I want with the existing kap 150 and associated AI and hsi.  I spoiled myself though and flew with g1000 for a while and going to ne hard to go back.

[Frank]

In theory they will. I have an IFD550 + IFD440 now, and have a scheduled install for dual GI 275s and a GFC 500 this fall at a well known shop.

[teethdoc]

2 minutes ago, Frank said:

In theory they will. I have an IFD550 + IFD440 now, and have a scheduled install for dual GI 275s and a GFC 500 this fall at a well known shop.

Mind me asking what the cost is for the dual GI 275 and GFC 500

[Frank]

DM sent

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[Ragsf15e]

There are a few functions you won’t get such as vnav or smart glide which are available with a gtn series gps.

[Frank]

There are a few functions you won’t get such as vnav or smart glide which are available with a gtn series gps.

Right, en route VNAV and Smart Glide didn't work, I think everything else will. It's still way more capability than I have now, and I really like my Avidyne navigators.

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[Ulysse]

Hello

Can you report on your experience with the avidyne+gfc500 setup?

Do the level button and ESP work?

Can you confirm the VNAV does not work?

[dzeleski]

8 hours ago, Ulysse said:

Hello

Can you report on your experience with the avidyne+gfc500 setup?

Do the level button and ESP work?

Can you confirm the VNAV does not work?

Everything works except VNAV. Same as if you had a garmin 430 as they are swappable. I’ve had a Dual G5, GF500, IFD440 install for several years now and it all works together perfectly.

[Max Clark]

The Avidyne IFD is a nice box. I'd recommend you download and play with the simulator. FMS based flight plans are strange if you're used to the Garmin way. Adding and changing things, activating legs, holds, etc... Everything works, just a little differently.

Took me a while to figure our that you have to activate Approach first on the IFD at the FAF then press APPR on the AP. Documentation glosses over this and the IFD looks like any advisory message. Easy to interpret as "activate approach on AP" as the message. After figuring this out my IFD + KFC would fly the approach with no problem.

You can set altitudes (before and at) on the flight plan and the IFD will prompt with TOD for you to descend. Requires attention on your part but the IFD will do the heavy calculations.

IFD540 will display charts (Jep), the screen felt a little too small for me to use and would default to my iPad on the yoke.

[dzeleski]

12 hours ago, Max Clark said:

The Avidyne IFD is a nice box. I'd recommend you download and play with the simulator. FMS based flight plans are strange if you're used to the Garmin way. Adding and changing things, activating legs, holds, etc... Everything works, just a little differently.

Took me a while to figure our that you have to activate Approach first on the IFD at the FAF then press APPR on the AP. Documentation glosses over this and the IFD looks like any advisory message. Easy to interpret as "activate approach on AP" as the message. After figuring this out my IFD + KFC would fly the approach with no problem.

You can set altitudes (before and at) on the flight plan and the IFD will prompt with TOD for you to descend. Requires attention on your part but the IFD will do the heavy calculations.

IFD540 will display charts (Jep), the screen felt a little too small for me to use and would default to my iPad on the yoke.

Although you can do what you are doing you are making your life harder at a very critical time.

https://pilotsupport.avidyne.com/kb/article/542-Approach-Procedures/

You can fix that gap in your route way sooner and have that approach loaded and activated. If you fix the gap in your route you won’t need to worry about activating it. The best way to solve this problem is to just ask for an approach fix to fly to. Ideally once you are cleared for the approach everything should be active and configured including the AP. 

Martin Pauly lays out many of the options in his video which lets you prepare way earlier: 

I personally avoid using VTF at all costs because you lose your fixes but you can see this example if it’s something you prefer:

 

Edited February 27 by dzeleski

[Pictreed]

Following along because I may go this route.

I have an IFD 440 now and love the way it works with the FMS.

I'm cross-training in a Cirrus for work and don't like going back to GARMIN FMS.

So when you say it doesn't do VNAV you're not talking about on a non-precision approach right? It’s the VNAV like a crossing restriction?

[N201MKTurbo]

I hav3 an IFD550 with a G5 HSI. It works great.

[Jetpilot86]

22 hours ago, Pictreed said:

Following along because I may go this route.

I have an IFD 440 now and love the way it works with the FMS.

I'm cross-training in a Cirrus for work and don't like going back to GARMIN FMS.

So when you say it doesn't do VNAV you're not talking about on a non-precision approach right? It’s the VNAV like a crossing restriction?

It will do VNAV/ILS approaches. It will NOT do a managed descent from altitude where the AP/IFD decides when to start down and automatically starts down. It will indicate where to start the descent and the rate is a changeable setting in the IFD. It will do altitude capture once you start down and set the altitude. It will not do crossing restrictions in the descent. 
 

I’m KFC150/IFD440-540/G600 glass. 

Edited March 11 by Jetpilot86

[Pictreed]

On 3/10/2025 at 3:39 PM, N201MKTurbo said:

I hav3 an IFD550 with a G5 HSI. It works great.

I like that I can install the G5 (with my IA and an Avionics Engineer's help). I've had bad installs from Avionics shops. When the Avionics Engineer looked over my shop installed IFD440 he said the terminations on some of the wires were exposed too much...I said, the "professionals" did those. Not to mention the whole dash was sitting on the CDI so it was 1/2" higher on one side and they couldn't figure out why the ball wasn't centering. They thought it was the holes in the dash.  And that's why the AI and HSI got moved up the list of upgrades. 

[Frank]

Winter weather didn't let me fly as much as I would like but I probably have 50 hours on the setup now. After working out a few very minor install issues everything is working flawlessly. My workload is significantly lower than with the KFC-150 and situational awareness is much better, especially during approaches.

I wasn't able to do the yaw damper because the servo interferes with the Kelly Thermal Systems AC's heat exchanger, and the installer had to work out a few interference issues with the servo mounting bracket and the AC. Most people won't have that issue.

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