430W to Avidyne Upgrade

Interested in hearing from those that replaced their Garmin 430W with the slide in IFD 440 Avidyne radio replacement navigator.

Talked to the Avidyne people and the $10,500 price tag is high, so trying to find the appropriate justification in features, functionality and user ease.

Thanks

I have replaced a 430 with the Avidyne unit, though not in my own plane. I have been impressed with the Avidyne unit's functionality, even though I have not even gotten close to using all of its features. I think the price point is too high, but it does give you a modern piece of equipment to replace an old one. Is that worth $4,000-4,500 out if pocket, only you can decide.

Talk to Rob Hickman at Advanced Flight Systems. He has a fair bit of experience operating both the Garmin and Avidyne navigators in his test bed aircraft.

From my personal perspective, I won't have a 430 in my plane - I just can't get my head wrapped around its user interface. When playing with hardware and Airventure I found using the IFD540 (the slide-in replacement for the GNS530) to be a breeze. After playing with the Avidyne I attempted to do the same thing (create and activate a flight plan) on the 530 and just couldn't make it work. The Garmin boxes simply are not intuitive in the least. I know the GTN-series has improved on the user interface somewhat over the 430/530, but the GTNs still fall short of the Avidyne in terms of efficiency of the user interface.

I went the other way and upgraded to the GTN 650. The IFD doesn't interface with the Garmin 330ES for 1090ES etc. Yes I had to replace the tray and rewire the connectors - actually swap pins but IMO it was worth it. The GTN is excellent and with many builders leaning towards G3X for IFR why wouldnt you opt for the single vendor integration and worldwide dealer support? Plus the GTN 625 is half the cost of the IFD if you buy a g3x screen at the same time and dont need a com/ILS function. Basically a free G3X screen with the GPS.

The 650 is a much better GPS, will fly holds, provides improved RNAV approaches - I'd say its a worthwhile upgrade.

I've done a number of slide in replacements. It is a much more intuitive box.

Vic

Canadian_JOY said:

From my personal perspective, I won't have a 430 in my plane - I just can't get my head wrapped around its user interface. When playing with hardware and Airventure I found using the IFD540 (the slide-in replacement for the GNS530) to be a breeze. After playing with the Avidyne I attempted to do the same thing (create and activate a flight plan) on the 530 and just couldn't make it work. The Garmin boxes simply are not intuitive in the least. I know the GTN-series has improved on the user interface somewhat over the 430/530, but the GTNs still fall short of the Avidyne in terms of efficiency of the user interface.

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There are thousands and thousands of GNS-430's in use all over the world. They are, IMHO, quite intuitive to use. You are actually the first person I have ever heard say that they couldn't figure out the user interface, although doubtless there are others.

The IFD series is a completely different type of interface, which will be more intuitive to some and less so to others. I was able to figure out enough of the flight plan system on a long flight that I was quite impressed, especially its auto fill of closeby waypoints to the previous point on he route.

I am actually fairly disappointed, if anything, with the GTN series due to their removal of almost all of he buttons. I don't like having to touch to do just about anything on it. That said, I had a GTN-625 in my RV-6A and I have a GTN-650 in my C182.

Btw, I had a 430W in my RV-10, which now belongs to he OP.

Rwtalbot, comparing the IFD440 or IFD550 to the price of the GTN625 is hardly a fair comparison. It should be compared to the GTN650. The OP has a Dynon Skyview system, so going Garmin or Avidyne really doesn't make the same difference as if it was a G3X system. With a G3X system, I would definitely go with the GTN navigator

rwtalbot said:

The IFD doesn't interface with the Garmin 330ES for 1090ES etc.

Click to expand...

Actually, it looks like this capability has recently been added to the IFD:

https://techsupport.avidyne.com/portal/kb/articles/ifd-software-10-2-0-features

Skylor

I recently upgraded my 430W to an Avidyne IFD 440. I really like the IFD 440 features/capabilities and I got a good trade-in deal from SteinAir. What sealed the deal was that he IFD 440 slides right into the 430W tray and re-used all existing connections.