530 or 430 with an Avidyne Display if you really want to see weather. The Avidyne can replace most WX RADAR displays and even give color when there was not before.
Not to dis Garmin, but the 480 is a pain in the fingers to use. It is not intuitive by any means, it pretends that even though it is a GPS the last thing the pilot wants to do is fly GPS direct, and if you don't execute every flight plan change -- it didn't happen and unless you know the box cold -- you can't find your original plan.
I like the 480. It is really good for business. It takes pilots longer to come up to speed on the thing, remember how to use it if they aren't on it daily, and be *really* proficient in an emergency.
The 'internal' transponder control is quite slow. If you get a frequency and transponder change, you can't do both immediately. You can not have the FO change the routing in the GPS while you change the frequency of either VOR or COM. You can not stop in the middle of GPS programming to change a frequency.
Even though the 480 has the almighty airways database, I can get a 430 going faster on the airways than on the 480. Why? The 480 requires you to scroll through every dang intersection and VOR that makes up the airway. I can enter in the airway entry point, changeover points, course changes, and airway exit point faster. Besides, east of the Rockies I'm usually GPS Direct. I understand the folks that fly the JFK/EWR corridors are slightly faster on the 480s and airways than the manual entry method -- but you can save the airways as flight plans in either unit.
Finally, WAAS is not that much of an upgrade. While there are more approaches becoming available, slowly, that offer non-precision with vertical guidance, the precision GPS approaches are rare. Even rarer is for ATC and the constellations to align to let the 480 decide to bless you with the precision approach. Of eight attempts in the last week, only one gave us precision minimums -- but it didn't work as ATC kept us too high for too long. We had to dive on the glideslope, then halfway down the unit reverted back to non-precision capability. When WAAS is truly a means of navigation, the 430s and 530s will have it.
The 530/430 weather datalink options are the Echoflight (no!), XM (not that great - but better than nothing), and WSI (good stuff).
The 480 weather options are . . . are. . . check back after AEA's meeting in April.
If you are a couple of months out on your avionics decision, try to attend the AEA national meeting in Palm Springs. www.aea.net for details. This will let you rub elbows with the manufacturers and see exactly what is coming out now. It is possible that there are other options that will sway the 480/430/something else decision.
Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein
Not to dis Garmin, but the 480 is a pain in the fingers to use. It is not intuitive by any means, it pretends that even though it is a GPS the last thing the pilot wants to do is fly GPS direct, and if you don't execute every flight plan change -- it didn't happen and unless you know the box cold -- you can't find your original plan.
I like the 480. It is really good for business. It takes pilots longer to come up to speed on the thing, remember how to use it if they aren't on it daily, and be *really* proficient in an emergency.
The 'internal' transponder control is quite slow. If you get a frequency and transponder change, you can't do both immediately. You can not have the FO change the routing in the GPS while you change the frequency of either VOR or COM. You can not stop in the middle of GPS programming to change a frequency.
Even though the 480 has the almighty airways database, I can get a 430 going faster on the airways than on the 480. Why? The 480 requires you to scroll through every dang intersection and VOR that makes up the airway. I can enter in the airway entry point, changeover points, course changes, and airway exit point faster. Besides, east of the Rockies I'm usually GPS Direct. I understand the folks that fly the JFK/EWR corridors are slightly faster on the 480s and airways than the manual entry method -- but you can save the airways as flight plans in either unit.
Finally, WAAS is not that much of an upgrade. While there are more approaches becoming available, slowly, that offer non-precision with vertical guidance, the precision GPS approaches are rare. Even rarer is for ATC and the constellations to align to let the 480 decide to bless you with the precision approach. Of eight attempts in the last week, only one gave us precision minimums -- but it didn't work as ATC kept us too high for too long. We had to dive on the glideslope, then halfway down the unit reverted back to non-precision capability. When WAAS is truly a means of navigation, the 430s and 530s will have it.
The 530/430 weather datalink options are the Echoflight (no!), XM (not that great - but better than nothing), and WSI (good stuff).
The 480 weather options are . . . are. . . check back after AEA's meeting in April.
If you are a couple of months out on your avionics decision, try to attend the AEA national meeting in Palm Springs. www.aea.net for details. This will let you rub elbows with the manufacturers and see exactly what is coming out now. It is possible that there are other options that will sway the 480/430/something else decision.
Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein
