Garmin

None of the pilots I’ve talked to were surprised by Garmin’s decision to discontinue production of its ubiquitous GNS 530W and GNS 430W all-in-one GPS/navcoms (production of the 530 ends this month and the 430 sometime next year). Really, who could be? These hugely successful units have been in production for well over a decade. […]

Gray and rainy skies kept some pilots from flying to Hartford, Connecticut, in time for the start of AOPA Summit on Thursday, but those who filed IFR, flew by airline or drove were greeted by a busy agenda, a packed aircraft static display and an exhibit hall brimming with new aviation technologies. Garmin drew a […]

__In this age of iPads and Androids and apps, is a dedicated portable device still relevant? That’s the question that some might be asking with the unveiling by Garmin of its latest flagship portable, the Garmin 796, which at this writing was top-secret. I have in my hands the only model not located behind lock […]

My wife and I visited Bell Helicopter in Texas recently for recurrent training in the Bell 407. The day following completion of our training, we had the opportunity to make a 90-minute flight in the new Garmin G1000-equipped Bell 407GX. I have extensive Garmin experience, and have flown G1000-equipped fixed-wing aircraft since Cessna first offered […]

The introduction of Garmin’s new GTN touch-screen navigators, the GTN 650 and the large GTN 750, is remarkable in itself, but the fact that we’ve almost come to expect such works of seeming magic in our cockpits made me think back to the original precursor of the GTN products, the GNS 430, which I met […]

(August 2011) When Garmin purchased Pilot My-Cast and its developer, Digital Cyclone, a few years ago, it did so because the handwriting was on the wall: Apps were a part of the future of aviation information. As originally conceived, Pilot My-Cast was an app for mobile devices, mostly phones, that would allow a pilot to […]

Lancair introduced an integrated, all-glass panel for its single-engine turboprop Evolution at AirVenture called EFC900X (Evolution Flight Control 900X), including Garmin’s GFC 7X autopilot. The GFC 7X is the first Garmin autopilot to be installed in an experimental airplane and is currently exclusive to the Evolution. “This is a huge vote of confidence from Garmin,” […]

We fly Garmin’s new panel-mount touch-screen navigators. Here’s why one flight will make you want one. Or two.

(April 2011) SINCE ITS INTRODUCTION in 1998, Garmin’s remarkable GNS 430 navigator and its larger GNS 530 companion have become the de facto standard in aftermarket aircraft avionics. And no wonder: In the various iterations, the multifunction panel-mount units serve as a moving map, a navigation receiver, a communications transceiver, a GPS (and, later, WAAS) […]

Fresh on the heels of its tour de force announcement at the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) show in Reno last week of the GTN 750 and GTN 650 panel-mount touch-screen navigators, Garmin released details at the show of its G2000 flat-panel touch-controlled avionics suite. The package will be installed at the factory in new airplanes. […]