I understand that in the very near future, Garmin will no longer be supporting the GNC430W or 530W, as they have introduced the GTN series to take their places. I have heard from more than one avionics shop that the 430/530 are very difficult to repair if there is a serious issue and that most avionics technicians would not touch a malfunctioning GNC unit beyond adjustable settings or harness issues.

Would a guy be a fool to install a used unsupported Garmin product in an airplane? These are sweet boxes loaded with useful functions. Does Garmin's lack of support make these things worthless? Old King stuff gets serviced and overhauled in the field all of the time.

Hmmmm...

They are a sweet box, but even if the guts continue to work, they use a proprietary data card to update the databases. How long will Jeppesen continue with their (absurdly expensive) data products for the 430/530?

I just had this discussion with my avionics shop. They are very well known and in bed solid with Garmin. The plan for my Skywagon restoration was to install a 430W, but my concern was that these were old and not going to be supported. Looking at the price of a used 430w (around $7300 mean) vs/ the new 650 ($10.5k) why go with the older radio if you were going to get boned.

He said I was being foolish. That Garmin had xxxx thousand of these floating around and they are going to keep supporting them. His quote was "the 650 aint going to get you any lower on your approach." I decided to get a 430w for the new panel. Of course its just one mans thoughts, I might have some touch-screen envy, but I have the 796 in the panel, and I know i will be pretty happy.

Garmin is not supporting certain models of the 430, mainly the first version of the non-WAAS 430. There is no repair for the single voltage 24V version (not the 12/24V). If it dies virtually the entire unit must be replaced. This is not Garmin being snarkey, but rather a couple of chips in the power supply section that are no longer in production by suppliers, so the entire main board is scrap as a result. The recommendation is to have your unit upgraded to the WAAS version, which gives you essentially a new unit and antenna. It is between $2,800 & $3,000 depending on your shops bite of the project. The 530 was never part of their support issues, since it has a different power supply.

I've got a 430 and 650 mounted in one of the Caravans, night & day. The 650 is a lot easier to use, better display and has a boatload of feature not available in the 430. One rather interesting feature is it ability to control other devices through the ARINC bus. So you can set up all the units form just one control head, like transponder, audio and such. They have to be capable of being controlled, but it is kind of cool when it all works together.

The official Garmin position is that they're no longer shipping the 530W/430W (they stopped shipping the 530W early last year and stopped shipping the 430W in December), but that they will provide service support and software updates for the foreseeable future. With more than 10,000 units in the field, the majority being 430Ws, they would have a lot of unhappy customers if they were to stop the support.

I think the obstacle/terrain info from Garmin is out-priced, but $400+/year for the nav updates from Jeppesen doesn't seem outlandish in the grand scheme of things.

The biggest downside of the 530W/430W boxes is the lack of intuitiveness. I've had my new 430W since May, and I'm just now getting really comfortable with it. Perhaps if I flew a lot more, that time would have been cut shorter. But it took hours of sitting with the manual while twisting knobs on the unit, then some intensive training from my IPC/BFR instructor who knows the box really well, plus purchasing/following an even better and easier to understand manual by John Dittmer.

But for the $3000 difference between the 430W and the new GTN 650, together with the belief that if some 10,000 other pilots could learn how to operate the 430W, it wasn't too hard a decision to go with the older system, especially since I don't go IFR all that often, anyway.

Cary

Is there another certified Nav/Comm/GPS on the market that will do what the 430 will do in the same price range?

Sam

I do not hesitate on installing the 430/530 line. I manage a fleet if about 12 aircraft, and after discussing it with numerous avionics techs., not much to fear. If Garmin left their customer base high and dry that quickly, they would look elsewhere.

Avidyne's IFD440 is a "plug and play" replacement for the 430W, but it's a whole lot more expensive at $15K. They've been having a sale through the end of December, knocking the price way down to $9K, making it competitive with the 430W in price. Whether it's competitive in features, I can't say. They bill it as a hybrid touch system, where you have your choice of using knobs or touch screen or a combination. They're also having a give-away contest through April 14th of one of them.

Cary