Garmin GFC 500

DJ HARMON

DJ HARMON

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Jun 16, 2019
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airdman235
I am flying a 1966 Piper Cherokee 180 with 2 Garmin G5s and aGarmin 650 GPS. Would appreciate input from pilots regarding the Garmin GFC 500 autopilot. Thanks. Airdan.
 
mine just arrived at the shop today, lol.. thats about all the pirep i got for ya for now. there are some cool videos on YT mainly on 172's that shows how awesome the AP is.
 
I only have experience with it in a T210, but it's a very solid autopilot. Flies the airplane like it's on rails.
 
I just installed one in my Arrow II along with some other upgrades including a pair of G5's. I agree with both Ryan Klems and WannFly. It does fly like it is on rails, and you really should put in the trim servo. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. I am hoping to get some pictures this weekend of it and the rest of my panel upgrade.
 
Just put a GFC 500 in my Arrow as part of an avionics upgrade (GFC 500, dual G5, GTN 650Xi, GNC 255A, GTX 345, GMA 345). Absolutely love it. Echoing what others have already said, the airplane flies like it's on rails when using the autopilot. FYI, I didn't put in the pitch trim servo. I don't really mind not having it. Sure it would be nice. But on a typical cross country, I only have to manually trim it a few times and the annunciation on the G5 to do it is obvious. I guess I can always add it in the future if I decide I want the convenience.
 
The servos aren’t especially strong, so if you have any issues with the cables or linkages binding up, get that fixed first.
 
We installed a GFC500 and a pair of G5’s last fall in our 210. It does a very nice job enroute and shooting RNAV approaches. My only negative feedback is that when manually flying it and wanting to trim the controls the electric trim seems very slow to respond. The electric trim seems to work fine when the autopilot is engaged though and I would recommend including it.
 
Briar Rabbit said:
We installed a GFC500 and a pair of G5’s last fall in our 210. It does a very nice job enroute and shooting RNAV approaches. My only negative feedback is that when manually flying it and wanting to trim the controls the electric trim seems very slow to respond. The electric trim seems to work fine when the autopilot is engaged though and I would recommend including it.
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Did you have another AP before this? Trying to compare, mine has electric trim with century 2000 and it’s slow as well,it seems slow as compared to hand trimming, but again I have nothing to compare against till the GFC get installed.
 
WannFly said:
Did you have another AP before this? Trying to compare, mine has electric trim with century 2000 and it’s slow as well,it seems slow as compared to hand trimming, but again I have nothing to compare against till the GFC get installed.
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Not in this particular airplane but I have flown many 210’s and several twins with CESSNA autopilots when I worked at the factory in the 70’s. The electric trim seemed much faster at the time and I did not have the urge that I do now to reach down and manually trim.
 
b/w can someone with GFC confirm that underspeed protection is available in ESP? as per the pilot guide it is, as per the webinar that garmin hosted, underspeed and overspeed is only available while AutiPilot is on :rolleyes:
 
I'll add to the positive reviews on the GFC500. I recently installed the 500 in my Mooney M20J along with two G5s and a GTN 750. I'm still learning the details although it is simple to do the basics. I've spent the last 10 years flying with G430Ws in a couple of different planes. I recently had a for-real unplanned hold on an airway. Between the 750 and the 500, I was able to program the 750 intuitively and the plane flew it flawlessly.
 
Low Level Flyer said:
Just put a GFC 500 in my Arrow as part of an avionics upgrade (GFC 500, dual G5, GTN 650Xi, GNC 255A, GTX 345, GMA 345). Absolutely love it. Echoing what others have already said, the airplane flies like it's on rails when using the autopilot. FYI, I didn't put in the pitch trim servo. I don't really mind not having it. Sure it would be nice. But on a typical cross country, I only have to manually trim it a few times and the annunciation on the G5 to do it is obvious. I guess I can always add it in the future if I decide I want the convenience.
Click to expand...

I did basically the same upgrade to my 172N with the exception of the GTN650 instead of the GTN 650Xi and I did install the pitch trim servo. I love the autopilot. It's very intuitive to use. Plane flies like it's on rails and approaches are very easy.
 
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