Soy,

The GFC 500 is a great addition to a 180/185. You will not be disappointed. Like Ross said, the 430W will drive the AP just fine. A GTN series adds further capability the AP.

PM me if you want to chat. I've had mine installed since the STC was approved.

MW

VNAV and a fully coupled approach are two different things. The 430W with a GFC 500 will fly coupled approaches. It will follow a glide slope on an ILS, it will follow a glide path on a GPS approach. It will even follow vertical “guidance” on approaches that don’t have either a glide path or glide slope, it will smooth and fly the steps in a step down approach. What it won’t do is fly a vertical path to a waypoint and end up at that waypoint at a specified altitude before the start of the approach. This last thing is what the 650 does. It’s cool, but not a deal breaker.

Summary: buy the GFC 500 and integrate it with your 430W. It will do more than you can imagine. It will exceed your expectations. A GTN series navigator is icing on the cake, but this autopilot will blow you away even connected to the 430W.

Thank you for that. Seems like the extra cost of the 650 doesn't give me all that much more capability, which is what I thought.

I'm looking to do the panel incrementally. So I'm thinking I'll do the recently factory furbished 430W and a G5 now, and then add the G3x with GFC500 in a year or two hopefully when the supply chain issues have improved and I'm ready to completely redo all the other sundry wiring and rip out my vacuum system and every gauge in the panel.

Pinecone wrote:VNAV and a fully coupled approach are two different things. The 430W with a GFC 500 will fly coupled approaches. It will follow a glide slope on an ILS, it will follow a glide path on a GPS approach. It will even follow vertical “guidance” on approaches that don’t have either a glide path or glide slope, it will smooth and fly the steps in a step down approach. What it won’t do is fly a vertical path to a waypoint and end up at that waypoint at a specified altitude before the start of the approach. This last thing is what the 650 does. It’s cool, but not a deal breaker.

Summary: buy the GFC 500 and integrate it with your 430W. It will do more than you can imagine. It will exceed your expectations. A GTN series navigator is icing on the cake, but this autopilot will blow you away even connected to the 430W.

Now you’re getting there!

I’ll confess, in writing my responses, I assumed your 430W was existing in the panel. I wouldn’t endorse installing one, but I won’t oppose you either. Kind of like when you think someone is heading to the alter with a poor choice for a spouse, but you need to zip your lip.

At least include a FS210 so you can use the touch screen of your iPad to stir your recipe for flight, and then push it to the panel instead of twisting the knobs on your 430W until they wear out and there are no parts available.

All this said with a bit of tongue in cheek satire.

I have to agree... a fresh install of a 430 doesn't seem like a particularly good idea, especially when you consider the cost delta between a used 430w and an older 650. Remember, although the 430 is a solid unit, its over 20 years old now. Moreover, its not supported any longer, and the simplest repair like a broken knob etc is over $1k to repair.

Also, the wiring for the 430 is completely different than the 650, so any work done to install the 430 gets lost when/if you move to a 650. My advice is to start with a more "modern" (GNS 650 is already 12 years old) navigator. Source a used 650. When you want to upgrade, you can just slide out the 650, and slide in a 650xi.

I had a servo for my GFC 500 fail fortunately under warranty time period.

Scuttlebut I heard was there may have been a bad batch of them.

nickelb wrote:I had a servo for my GFC 500 fail fortunately under warranty time period.

Scuttlebut I heard was there may have been a bad batch of them.

It’s not scuttlebut - they did have a faulty batch and they have a mandatory service bulletin on them

https://s23634.pcdn.co/en-US/aviationalerts/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/22016a.pdf

I just dealt with a roll servo failure prior to the affected batch. Fortunately it occurred 2 weeks before warranty expired.

Thanks for posting this!

Not sure if this helps anyone or not but My S/N was not in the list but still had the issue so my guess is it may be more of a widespread thing than the SB says.

It’s a wide spread problem. Check with your dealer.

Mine recently displayed a fault code on the G5. Servo clutch fault. Dealer reset the code. Garmin told him it happens sometimes if a pilot wrestles with the autopilot. Isn’t that what the clutch is for? Yes, but sometimes it causes a fault. Garmin is working on it.

Just put a GFC 500 in my Wagon, its rock solid and worth every penny.

Luckily my autopilot and servos were shipped from Garmin after the SB, and delayed because of it. Hopefully the revised style is solid.

Flew it on autopilot 10 hrs last weekend, and have 3,000 nm to fly next week.

Ross,

You will appreciate the AP after a trip like that for sure! Have fun!

MW

For the autopilot servos
- I had 2 installed new 2021
- One failed in 2022, I had it replaced by a Garmin dealer in the Seattle area
---> It appears the part was paid for by garmin, but I got an 1800$ Labor bill

-- Has anyone else had similar or different experience regarding Garmin warrantying labor work?