Garmin GTN750, or Avidyne IFD540?

If you had to choose one or the other, which would you pick to be in your airplane?

  • Total voters
    78
It is in the avionics shop since Thursday. I did power it down (on separate switch) and it came up working after the reboot. No news yet from the shop.
 
BTW.... has anyone seen the new IDF550? Looks amazing. Interesting to consider built-in EFIS features in the center stack. If I had one, I'd put it at the very top of the stack, even above the audio panel. Interesting for co-pilot.

http://www.avidyne.com/products/ifd/ifd550.html
ifd550-egocentric-450px.jpg
 
Just flew from MD to San Diego (20 hours out <13 hours back) and all units worked properly. The Aspen failure has not occurred again nor does the ASPEN unit have any history or ability for the avionics shop to identify what caused the failure. One interesting item with the GTN 750 is that the Gillespie controllers had names for approach and departure that were not in the Garmin database. Made for interesting communications with the tower.
 
@TangoWhiskey ; What did you eventually decide on?

If the work is completed, care to share some photos?
 
I would go Garmin for better resale value and support. Plus most panels I'd want already have Garmin transponder and so forth that better integrate than Avidyne.
 
Garmin - both for residual value of the aircraft and future ease of sale. I personally prefer the GTN series from afar, but I have little experience with the Avidyne units. Avidyne is a very small company compared to Garmin.
 
Not sure there's much data on how an IFD holds its value, since they're only a few years old. I wouldn't expect resale value to be much different from Garmin. Anyone who's actually used one will tell you they're excellent units.
 
Jim_R said:
Not sure there's much data on how an IFD holds its value, since they're only a few years old. I wouldn't expect resale value to be much different from Garmin. Anyone who's actually used one will tell you they're excellent units.
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That's what I'm hearing, too. Not that any of them actually hold real value, for what was paid to put them in, but it's not a one-stop one-brand shop for panel mounted IFR GPS' anymore. Avidyne is a real Garmin competitor it would appear. That can only mean good things for all of us.
 
Sooo, Birdy somehow shifted her wing downwards, lost the vertical stabilizer and a door...
 
Nice looking panel for sure.
 
Avidyne 10.2 now certified. This is huge deal and something community has been waiting for for a long time. Unlocks synthetic vision on the IFD's, IFD100 virtual iPad panel, 3d traffic, exocentric vision, radar overlay display etc, etc.
 
HI! I am new here, looking to share experience..

I have installed one of the first KSN770 here in Canada, an hybrid full function unit
to replace my NavII on a Cessna 182T, and I upgraded my AP and Trsp from Bendyx
its hooked up to my KAP140
truly an amazing combination from a reputable company
I am wondering why it is not more installed?????
 
j-p said:
HI! I am new here, looking to share experience..

I have installed one of the first KSN770 here in Canada, an hybrid full function unit
to replace my NavII on a Cessna 182T, and I upgraded my AP and Trsp from Bendyx
its hooked up to my KAP140
truly an amazing combination from a reputable company
I am wondering why it is not more installed?????
Click to expand...

Honeywell isn't really a reputable company. King is long dead.

That said, King demos very poorly. Whether they intend to or not, every demo unit I've touched in person had serious database or user interface bugs.

From someone actually used to the old quality level from King, pre-Honeywell, it's a big turn-off. They don't seem to have their act together.

Also don't know if it has changed, but King's pricing here in the States has never been anything to write home about.

They also really did a poor job providing an upgrade path for the early adopters. King once had more installs in the Loran and GPS world than Garmin, but let it slip away.

I'm glad you're having a good experience with it, but many of us wouldn't spend a penny buying Honeywell.
 
Honeywell is a big player in the business jet world, unfortunately they don't really seem interested in being competitive in the small airplane market. I'm sure they and Rockwell Collins have taken notice how many new jets are Garmin equipped.

I personally can't see how either can compete with G when all the pilot puppy mills have trainer aircraft equipped with G. Who really wants to learn an entirely new interface when moving up to turbine?
 
I guess the answer depends on your goal. If it's resale value, my completely WAG is Garmin, simply because of market penetration and familiarity.

If that's not a concern, the answer is really "which do you like better?" I've flown with both; the Garmins in club aircraft; the Avidyne in a friend's. My take is they both do their jobs well, but if I were in the market, I "like" the Garmin better. Why? For no reason other than, despite obvious changes in the interface, having flown with Garmin handhelds, the 400/500 series and some with the G1000, I've generally found the underlying Garmin logic and flow, for better or for worse, consistent. That, I think makes the transition to the GTN relatively simple. OTOH, one of the reason my friend chose his IFD was, he was a user and lover of the 480 and found the Avidyne's logic to be more similar than the Garmin.
 
bnt83 said:
Honeywell is a big player in the business jet world, unfortunately they don't really seem interested in being competitive in the small airplane market. I'm sure they and Rockwell Collins have taken notice how many new jets are Garmin equipped.

I personally can't see how either can compete with G when all the pilot puppy mills have trainer aircraft equipped with G. Who really wants to learn an entirely new interface when moving up to turbine?
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Two points:
a) It's a tough world out there and Garmin's position should not be considered unassailable "forever". Who could have imagined King falling off the radar back in the heyday of Silver Crown? But for now, for us, your point is well taken.

b) Learning new interfaces in the commercial world comes with the territory - nobody expects Boeing and Airbus to have commonality. And in the biz jet world with so many countries making product that will also remain an issue. The new GA piston + turboprop manufacturing volume are probably not enough to support more than one dominant player (at a time) I suspect.
 
Anymore, with the highly integrated suites that come with new aircraft, if you don't have your avionics equipment being installed in aircraft on the assembly line, you're stuck playing in the retrofit sandbox and losing out on a lot of sales because of it. Retrofit seem like a market that will continue to shrink. (EAB might offset some it)

Aircraft built with these new highly integrated suites will likely never change brand names.
 
Lots of opinions here. I looked at the 770 and waited for a while to see if they would improve the rather clumsy software to something competitive. I did like the split screen and was hoping King would put the effort into improvements. Seeing none I looked at the Garmin and Avidyne. To install a 750 in a Mooney would require using a crow bar and shoe horn. That made the Avidyne look good. When it came time to commit I could not get comfortable with Avidyne trying to push its customers into legal liability if they (customer) crashed and Avidyne got sued. Just did not seem like good customer relations. So I got out a crow bar and installed a 750.
 
Check out the terms of the Avidyne warranty. Must have been the same lawyer who drafted the Icon A5 sales agreement.
 
bnt83 said:
Aircraft built with these new highly integrated suites will likely never change brand names.
Click to expand...

Stuff in the light GA market not being THAT integrated, but both Cessna and Cirrus changed horses mid-stream. Cessna booted the KAP A/P out of their aircraft, and Cirrus booted Avidyne out. If we're talking the light GA market.

Both went Garmin. For better or worse. Well technically Cessna already did Garmin clear back to the G1000 but had to use someone else's A/P which is kinda a mess in that era of Cessnas.

(I get what you're saying in the larger aircraft though.)
 
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