Due to room, cost and appeal I am considering having a Avidyne IFD 540 installed in my PA30. Comments???

Charles,

Looks like the Avidyne 540 is about the same price as the Garmin GTN 750. I guess the advantage of the 540 is that it will fit in the same hole the Garmin 530. Are you replacing a 530? If so does it still work? Money being close to the same, depending on panel constraints, I would go with the Gamin. Like it or not they just about have the GA avionics market sewed up. Sun n Fun might be a good opportunity to play with all these.

Mark

I tend to lean towards Garmin as well, cost being equal but.... while I have no experience of the 540 unit you're referring to I do have over 650hrs in Cirrus aircraft with the Avidyne PFD / MFD configuration and I like them very much. I also fly a twin Cessna 340A with a Garmin G600 PFD/MFD and in comparing Avidyne to Garmin in the PFD/MFD realm I find the Avidyne far more intuitive and "user friendly". I find Garmin tends to bury things in menus that may seem logical but are not always as quick and easy to get to with the Avidyne. Again I'm talking about PFDs and MFDs here but I would think the "knobology" somewhat transfers to other equipment.

On a related note, about 8 months ago I switched from using Foreflight on the iPad to Garmin Pilot. I like both for different reasons but I'm thinking of going back to Foreflight for similar reasons.... I think some aspects of the Garmin design are slightly less intuitive.

Just my 2-cents.

- Charles

Mark,
I am considering replacing a King 89 B and KX155 with the IFD 540. I have a Garmin 430 currently. Without panel mod I cannot have a 430 with a Garmin 750 in the center stack. Also I am considering a Garmin 650 but the this is a smaller screen without charts.

Charles

Charles,

The 540 May be a good unit; I do not have any experience with it. Just an idea you could sell the 430 and replace with the Garmin 750 and maybe an SL-30. Garmin may still have the trade in special. I think the bigger screen on the 750 is a plus. I would stay away from the 650; the screen is too smal in my opinion.

Mark

I replaced a KLN94 and KX155 with the GTN650. From the kln to the gtn was a big difference. Changing routes is a breeze. I find the 650 to be large enough for navigating, I do not however have traffic or weather on it yet, that could change my mind.

The Avidyne is supposed to be a quick swap from a 430/530. I've heard great things about Avidyne's support, not so much about Garmin. That being said, I have a GTN 650 that works great - although had the Avidyne been available two years ago when I installed it I would likely have gone that route.

Having now flown with both the Avidyne and the Garmin latest and greatest, I am putting an IFD 540 in my airplane! It is a true FMS with intuitive functionality, and sorry, I still like buttons and knobs vs being forced into touch screen mode, especially in turbulence....and the 540 has a direct entry keyboard! That is so much better than the scroll and find method of the current Garmin, or the twist through the alphabet of the 430/530. I'm also doing the new Lynx from L3 as my ADSB solution. It goes on the shop next week.

I installed the new 540 in my 180 about 3 weeks ago. I replaced my 530 and I must say so far I really like it. It has a lot of information because it really is a true FMS, but you can also select what you want to see.

If you have an iPad, Avidyne has a free 540 simulator you can download and play with. I've used that quit a bit to get comfortable with the unit as I sit in my lazyboy at home so I can concentrate more on flying when in the airplane.

The Avidyne unit uses Jeppesen for nav and chart data exclusively. With the Garmin you have the option to use Garmin's data for a lot less money. This was the decision point for my next door neighbor.

In 8871Y I replaced my 530 with an IFD540. Learning curve is finally coming around in my favor and the 540 is as advertised, very powerful. I questioned my decision for a while, having known the Garmin like the back of my hand. I have a pilot guide for every piece of equipment in the plane on my iPad and that gives me real time reference to work through the challenges during my flights. Yes sir eeh I'm now a happy camper with the Avidyne, good graphics, traffic shows well, weather and flight plans w/procedures and etc seem easy after gettin down the logic that they have designed to facilitate getting around in the FMS and GPS. Good luck and Blue Skies with whichever machine you choose!! KB

And some more thoughts on the Avidyne 540 (and 440). With experience of both brands A and G, I have been flying with it for about 7 months now, and really appreciate the FMS architecture and its elegance. The inflight workload is way reduced, (you don't realise how much of your attention that non-FMS box takes at high workload times, until you try the alternative) and the operational flexibility and situational simplicity are outstanding. Now that the eagerly awaited 10.1 firmware has been approved by the FAA, it will be even better.

It "drives" and "thinks" differently to the Garmin, so will be unfamiliar to most at first. Spend lots of time with the free iPad emulator beforehand, and it will come together for you. Based on my experience with the 540, I have now become a repeat IFD customer for Avidyne.

Good luck whichever way you decide

Tiptank