Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Yet Another Upgrade

Breaking his silence, the IFR Pilot reappears...

Mike Hotel has been scheduled for another upgrade. As many of you may know, Garmin will be dramatically increasing the pricing on WAAS upgrades to its series of 430/530 GPS/Nav/Coms at the end of this month. Something like doubling the price overnight!

With some insightful questioning of our avionics tech, we learned that to obtain to current pricing, we didn't need to have the work done by the end of August, only to have it scheduled. And it could be scheduled months out. The only hitch is that its a "must-do." You can't change your mind and cancel, although you don't have to give Garmin any money in advance.

So, guess what we did today? We decided to schedule to upgrade. For February 2008! That gives us months to worry about how to pay for it, although truth be told, we planned for this when we installed the 430. We already have the proper type and length of coax cable in Mike Hotel. Essentially, this should be a remove and replace the unit (after the factory does its magic), and then change out the antenna.

It'll be nice to have that WAAS upgrade, although now I'll have to decipher all of the strange acronyys at the bottom of the NACO charts showing MDAs and DHs....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

DC abd MS Let me know when you want to see this work. We can take the Cherokee and show you how it works at the Home Base. The Old CFII for MS.

Sylvia said...

*glares at Garmin after the issues of the last flight*

This is useful to know actually ! And Feb is miles away, you'll be fine ;)

Windsor said...

Good move on the upgrade. Should add to the resale value of the plane if and when you decide to get a new one.

Anonymous said...

Piece of cake on those acronyms. Just don't descend below the DH unless you see the runway!

Otherwise it's time to practice your missed approaches.

You're going to love that 530.

Rob Mark
www.jetwhine.com