flyGarmin app for Mac vs. macOS Catalina

[Pilawt]

I just bought an airplane equipped with a GNS 430W and a 530W, so I'm finally being dragged kicking and screaming into the wonderful, wacky world of Garmin.

The navdata in the 530 doesn't even cover my half of the country, so a database update is imperative. To do that, I apparently need to use the flyGarmin app. I installed it on my Mac, but when I try to open it I get an error message:



I am running macOS Catalina 10.15.4. The message appears even when I select "Open Anyway" in the Security & Privacy dialog.

EDIT: Never mind, I apparently did something (what, I don't know) that made it open now.

But that raises the next question: There is an orange-label card in the unit, but I want to buy the Garmin update instead of the Jepp. Can I use the Sky-Bound card reader for the Garmin download, or do I need to buy the Garmin reader?

This is all very confusing. Never had to worry about this stuff with VOR, DME and ADF ...

Thanks.

 

[denverpilot]

Yeah just go into the Security settings General tab on OSX and it keeps track of anything it blocked from opening there and lets you hit open it anyway. Appears on the bottom of the tab.

It’s called Gatekeeper and it had a security flaw for years big enough to drive a Mack truck through where malicious software could drive right around it by deleting a single file. They just patched it. It’s fairly useless as far as actual security goes.

But it annoyingly gets in the way of legitimate software that won’t pay Apple money to digitally sign it.

Not even most of the serious security software companies will pay that Apple tax. Waste of their money. I doubt Garmin ever will either.

 

[Jumpmaster]

Jeff, my understanding is that you will need to buy the Garmin card programmer if you are going to be using the Garmin downloads which are cheaper than the Jepps. I am in the same position - I have a new Skybound WAAS card programmer that I used once and now I want the cheaper Garmin databases.

 

[Stewartb]

What are these card readers? I load an SD card from flygarmin on my laptop using a cheap USB-SD adapter.

 

[NealRomeoGolf]

What are these card readers? I load an SD card from flygarmin on my laptop using a cheap USB-SD adapter.

You don't have a GNS I assume. The modern Garmins can take SD cards. Us GNS users cant.