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New Garmin Panel Mounts: GTN 650 / 750

There is an ongoing avionics show in Reno. I am guessing they will make the announcement there. Reno is on Pacific time I do believe.
 
There is an unveiling dinner happening as I type this. One of my guys is attendance and there will be more to report shortly. It should hit the public in many places at the same tine before too awful long....

Cheers,
Stein
 
Good grief! I can't find anyone who has leaked this info early....They must have threatened everyone with knowledge of this one!!!

I would like to see the hit counter on Garmin's news page right now...oh well, guys I can read about it in the morning....
 
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I am still waiting for the "magic", but I have to fly from NZAA to SCEL so I will be disconnected for the next 12 hours:confused:
 
I've been looking at that. I'm glad I've purchased all my avionics (thanks, Stein, you haven't quite achieved the happiness of your tee shirt logo yet, but it's getting close) already, so I'm not even tempted...
 
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Price

Paul K said:
Any idea on cost?
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Quoted from their Press Release--

The first units are now shipping and will be on display at the Sun ?n Fun Fly-in, March 29 to April 3, 2011. The GTN 650 is expected to be available at a suggested retail price of $11,495 and the GTN 750 is expected to be available at a suggested retail price of $16,995.​
 
The GTN 650 is $11,495 and the GTN 750 is $16,995. More than I have in my entire panel. Hopefully this brings the used prices on 430w down and I can get an IFR approved gps in my plane.
 
MSRP may be installed price. Sarasota avionics quotes the MSRP on the 430W as $11,295. If that's the case then it's not a significant price increase from what it's replacing.
 
Wow!

Pretty cool, but I don't have an extra $28k laying around.

$17k for the 750
$3k for the remote audio panel
$4K for the weather receiver
$4k for the transponder
(I'm sure there's probably more.....)

I think I'll wait until the price comes down.
 
430 end of life?

Anyone heard of Garmin's plans for supporting the 430 series in the future? I'm sure End of Life is many years away, but the new products will surely start the countdown...

The new units look great. The first questions I'll have for the garmin guys is how to display and fly V airways like the 480 could. I bet the GTN will offer some pretty stunning new capabilities for programming, flying, and changing flight plans in all phases of flight. I love the 430w (and can't wait to use mine), but I speculate I'll have GTN envy when I see how the flight planning stuff works.

M
 
Bling

Nice bit'o'bling for the Cirrus / Bonanza / Acclaim drivers. Then again, the new ones will have a G1000. Maybe retrofit. The touch screen could prove to be a game changer if they got the human factors right (...if they figured out how to apply a touch screen in turbulence).

Some will put them in RV's, and I can see it making sense in some RV-10's. DR may have one in his six within a month, but don't know that Paul could fit one in the Val (how does one become a beta tester anyway?!?);) That said, not interesting to me. The telling point in the Flash promo was when they were touting that you could save space compared to a 530, 430, audio panel, transponder stack. Let's just say that I don't have a problem with a 530/430 taking up space ;).

Cool stuff. I love to see advancement for GA, and each step takes us all forward.
 
Whew! I was afraid it was going to be something that would compete with and replace the 430W I *just received* two weeks ago :).

Too pricey for me. And after my frustrations with my big ol' fingers on my iPhone, no thanks on the touchscreen stuff in a cockpit.

Looks cool, I love new stuff, but I'm happy with what I've got...430W + a big ol' SkyView...

:)
 
SteinAir said:
There is an unveiling dinner happening as I type this. One of my guys is attendance and there will be more to report shortly. It should hit the public in many places at the same tine before too awful long....

Cheers,
Stein
Click to expand...

I tried to crash it, the Garmin people weren't impressed. "But I just want a look!!!"
 
Sure looks like some great stuff.

Good luck on this thing reducing the price of the 430W. Garmin will most likely trash the 430/530W in a year or two.
 
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Brantel said:
Garmin will most likely trash the 430/530W in a year or two.
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Yup, just remember how quickly the GNS480 was discontinued after the 4/530's got their "W"s even though Garmin swore they wouldn't discontinue it.

I was noticing on the youtube video that there is a lag time with the rubberbanding. Wonder if the initial units have too slow a processor.
 
Note that the prices Garmin lists are MSRP, which are very close to the current 430W and 530W, so the new units will be essentially the same price or just a few dollars more than the 430W and 530W current pricing. Naturally there are going to be a lot of 430s and 530s coming out for retrofit now so that should drive the price of used 430s and 530s down.
 
I base my statement on the fact that the W version of the 430/530 had little effect on the used price of the 430/530 non W...



Avionics Systems said:
Note that the prices Garmin lists are MSRP, which are very close to the current 430W and 530W, so the new units will be essentially the same price or just a few dollars more than the 430W and 530W current pricing. Naturally there are going to be a lot of 430s and 530s coming out for retrofit now so that should drive the price of used 430s and 530s down.
Click to expand...
 
What GAneeds

is a couple of real competitors for Garmin.

Thank goodness I don't have to buy certified equipment.
 
Preposterous pricing

Avionics Systems said:
Note that the prices Garmin lists are MSRP, which are very close to the current 430W and 530W, so the new units will be essentially the same price or just a few dollars more than the 430W and 530W current pricing. Naturally there are going to be a lot of 430s and 530s coming out for retrofit now so that should drive the price of used 430s and 530s down.
Click to expand...

In my early opinion the Garmin GTN will be a very disappointing release for most builders in the Experimental category.

Essentially the GTN 650 (effective replacement for the GPS/NAV/COM 430W) has a recommended price of $11495 and I would expect that for this new product there will not be too much of an initial dealer discount. At the moment you can buy a new 430W for as little as $7160 which will perform the same basic GPS/NAV/COM functions as the GTN 650.

You can add a remote Garmin GTX 32 transponder to the GTN 650 for a recommended price of $2495. Or you can add a stand-alone Garmin GTX 327 transponder (that can currently be purchased for $1638) to the 430W.

It seems you can't add the remote audio panel Garmin GMA 35 to the GTN 650 (GTN 750 only). But even if you could the Garmin GMA 35 remote audio panel has a recommended price of $2995. This compares with the stand-alone Garmin GMA 340 audio panel that can currently be purchased for $1200.

So if I read the info correctly you can have:

1. A Garmin 430W with a stand-alone GTX 327 transponder and a stand-alone GMA 340 audio panel for $9998.

2. A Garmin GTN 650 with a remote GTX 32 transponder and a stand-alone GMA 340 audio panel for $15190

3. A Garmin GTN 750 with a remote GTX 32 transponder and a remote GMA 35 audio panel for $22485 (gulp!!!).

Admittedly the eventual dealer prices for the new GTN and remote accessories might be a bit better than the recommended prices but as I said earlier I wouldn't be expecting too much discounting in the early days (years).

At any rate the new GTN 650 with transponder and audio panel is up to 50% dearer than the equivalent 430/transponder/audio panel configuration. And that's a very hefty price increase for what is mostly just additional touchscreen bling.

It's Garmin...it's a monopoly...they currently have no real competition in the certificated GPS/NAV/COM market (they bought out the only real competition and buried them)...we shouldn't have held out any hope for more functionality at the same price with the 430 replacement.

One day a real competitor will come onto the market and I suspect there will be a lot of us with long memories.
 
As has already been pointed out, there will probably not be a lot of these in RV panels (although there will surely be some). I too hope that it drives down the cost of the 430W units.
 
Well I'm quite relieved - these things don't make me feel bad about what we've installed in the new -3 at all. Bling for the certified crowd in my view - and I share the nervousness about touch screens in the cockpit. It will take some time before we hear from the average pilot/user about how the user interface works in the air.

Glad I have the G3X and 430W stack in final configuration ode - and not tempted at all by these for now....

Paul
 
I agree...

with Paul. I have been pricing a panel upgrade with Stein and it appears that the G3X system is much more homebuilder friendly. I think that the G3X system caters to us whereas the GTN system is for a panel upgrade in the certified (Piper, Cessna) crowd. I also didn't see any EIS capability in the new system but that may be the next upgrade. Garmin threw a bone to us with the G3X so now they're moving on to another niche.

Bill Near
 
Food for Thought

Some ?Food for Thought:?

1. Given the very high GTN series pricing, it looks like Bendix/King has an opportunity to get back into the game; if they?re interested. Better yet, the integrated system people, Dynon and MGL, have a golden opportunity to compete head-to-head with Garmin by developing an open-architecture IFR-certified Nav box. It would be outstanding if AFS and/or GRT decided to enter the fray. With the high GTN pricing, Garmin has certainly left the door open.

2. With the extremely large installed base of 430 and 530 systems, Garmin will need to support the 430/530 architecture for some time to come. I?m guessing that the commercial fleet will start to shed 430s and 530s fairly soon, because they can afford, and write-off, a GTN upgrade. There may be a lot of high-quality, used/refurbished 430s and 530s available at very good prices by this fall.

Other Thoughts/Comments?

Bill Palmer :)
 
This stuff is seriously cool, but I see no additional capability for the price. It's all in the interface.

As was mentioned I see this putting a lot of used 430 and 530's on the market as the certified and high end experimental crowd all rush to upgrade.

The down side is that Garmin has historically proven that they'll turn they're back on outdated gear relatively quickly. So that discount 430/530 doesn't come without risk.

All that said, 2 Dynon 10" screens, and that 750 with all the stuff remote mounted, would make one slick/clean looking panel.
 
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