GTN650 vs GNS430

[Ghery]

I'll be damned. It flies DME Arcs. Like ya don't even have to know how far from the DME you are. It don't even tell you. It just keeps giving you turns like one degree at a time and keeps you on the 'centerline' of the Arc.

My 530 does arcs. Your 430 probably did too.

The 430W does, indeed, handle DME arcs. And those approaches are certainly easy to fly, even with an old DME in the panel.

 

[Tantalum]

The only thing I prefer about the 650 are the ability to load airways.. which is huge.

Otherwise it does very little for me. I hate touchscreen in general do to all the fingerprinting and smudging, and especially hate it in things that move, like cars

Mini rant: and almost any new car now if you want to change the temperature you have to click into a different menu screen navigate to the climate option and start touching the screen.. in the meantime you've lost your nav and if you want to change the song then you also have to navigate some ridiculous entertainment page. Using a phone in a car is illegal here but going through pages of submenus just to make the air conditioning three degrees colder is acceptable

How about just a knob for the station, volume, and direct climate controls. The Germans did this part right, BMW, Merc, Porsche, leave the climate control separate from the nav and still allow an easy way to change the radio

But any Subaru, Honda, Nissan.. forget it

 

[Ravioli]

(if you are using track-up mode, as most probably are)

Heresy, I tell you. This is PoA! Everyone uses North up. At least everyone who isn't using track up.

 

[SoonerAviator]

The only thing I prefer about the 650 are the ability to load airways.. which is huge.

Otherwise it does very little for me. I hate touchscreen in general do to all the fingerprinting and smudging, and especially hate it in things that move, like cars

Mini rant: and almost any new car now if you want to change the temperature you have to click into a different menu screen navigate to the climate option and start touching the screen.. in the meantime you've lost your nav and if you want to change the song then you also have to navigate some ridiculous entertainment page. Using a phone in a car is illegal here but going through pages of submenus just to make the air conditioning three degrees colder is acceptable

How about just a knob for the station, volume, and direct climate controls. The Germans did this part right, BMW, Merc, Porsche, leave the climate control separate from the nav and still allow an easy way to change the radio

But any Subaru, Honda, Nissan.. forget it

Not sure which Nissans and Hondas you are referring to, but just about every one of the Nissan/Infiniti/Hondas I have driven as rentals has had physical buttons/knobs for stereo and climate control.

 

[Tantalum]

Not sure which Nissans and Hondas you are referring to, but just about every one of the Nissan/Infiniti/Hondas I have driven as rentals has had physical buttons/knobs for stereo and climate control.

my girlfriends <4 year old Civic has everything go through the damn nav screen. I hate almost everything about that car.

 

[NordicDave]

The only thing I prefer about the 650 are the ability to load airways.. which is huge.

With a Flight Stream 210 combined with my GNU-430W, I’m able to pick Victor airways in ForeFlight; and with one button push upload the whole flight plan to the 430. There’s a feature in ForeFlight to only load the victor airway navigation points that are heading changes. This way I can get an entire Victor airway loaded to the 430.

Pretty sweet set up combining the 430 with the 210 and ForeFlight. It added years of longevity to my current panel.

 

[SoonerAviator]

my girlfriends <4 year old Civic has everything go through the damn nav screen. I hate almost everything about that car.

I don't think I've driven any Civics as rentals, but had a few Accords and a Pilot in the mix. The Pilot (was probably a 2017 model or so) was the only one I could think of that didn't have a volume "knob". It is annoying to try and quickly turn down the volume using the touch-sensitive keys because it takes longer, it did have climate control knobs/toggle switches though.

 

[luvflyin]

It flies the Missed Approach for you!!! Cool. I had been doing it in heading mode outta habit. But I let it fly the approach for me in NAV mode and left it there on the missed. It does it, flies straight ahead if need be then intercepts a radial if there is one to be intercepted. Flies straight ahead to an altitude and then starts the turn if there is that restriction on the missed procedure.

 

[David Megginson]

Tip:
Don't fly in turbulence.



Kidding, sorta ..

Ignore that. You can do a lot of routine in-flight tasks, like tuning and swapping frequencies, setting a direct-to waypoint, etc, entirely with physical knobs and buttons if you prefer (despite urban legends to the contrary).

For more-complicated tasks that require the touchscreen, like amending a flight plan, you just have to learn not to reach and stab like you would with a bank machine; instead, you anchor your thumb or baby finger to the panel first so that your hand moves with it (the GTN has a convenient bezel for that), then tap with your index finger. It's not a challenge, even in strong-enough turbulence to bump my head against the ceiling.

Reach and stab isn't a good idea with physical knobs or buttons either, because you're subjecting them to the strain of steadying your whole arm in rough air. The two-step anchor/manipulate process is best any time you're adjusting anything on your panel in rough air (I learned this the hard way after having to replace an expensive knob on my A/P).

 

[David Megginson]

I'll be damned. It flies DME Arcs. Like ya don't even have to know how far from the DME you are. It don't even tell you. It just keeps giving you turns like one degree at a time and keeps you on the 'centerline' of the Arc.

It flies holds too. Enjoy!