February 6, 200323 yr I've been looking into purchasing the Reality XP Garmin 530. I've never bought any avionics add-ons like the Garmin before. I'm particularly interested in the GPS and navigation parts of the Garmin. I'm sure the RXP Garmin 530 smokes the MS GPS, but if someone could tell me some of the advantages of the Garmin GPS over the MS GPS I'd appreciate it.Thanks.[TABLE BORDER=0][tr][td] http://timbo87.home.attbi.com/minisig.jpg [/td][/tr][tr] [td] Click here to visit Tim's FS Studio!] [/td][/tr][tr][td colspan=2] Last updated Dec. 31 [/td][/tr][/TABLE
February 7, 200323 yr Some Real Garmin features:VOR,NDB,Airport, intersection, SID,STAR approaches (including some circling VOR DME) database (not all, depends on the place).Detailed (depending on the place) moving map with landmarks like rivers, roads railroads, cities;ETA, Ground speed, heading, track and all information that you can imagine about your flightEasy to tune COM1, NAV1Minimum safe altitude;VNAV advisorie for one point;As an option:TCAS and weather mapAnd of course LNAV of a flight plan;Install this And then get some courage and study this [link:www.garmin.com/manuals/1.pdf]Manual (Big Downloads)Jos
February 7, 200323 yr I will echo what Jose' has stated. The best way to get an idea of the capability is to download and install the Garmin trainer program. I am working my way through the 206 page Garmin GNS530 manual and so far the Reality XP is proving to be a very accurate implementation. This is a very capable piece of avionics and a real sweet add-on to GA aircraft. The one thing that is not presently working as I would like is that the GNS530 will not drive the course indicator while in GPS Nav mode. I understand that RealityXP is looking for a solution for this issue.I have asked for and received help from RealityXP on a few issues. Their support has been outstanding. I would also encourage you to visit the support board and read through the posts to get a feel for the product.http://www.simforums.com/forums/display_fo....asp?ForumID=12Jeff Williams (KDCA)
February 7, 200323 yr Does it have airport information like runways, lengths, surface types, frequencies, etc?[TABLE BORDER=0][tr][td] http://timbo87.home.attbi.com/minisig.jpg [/td][/tr][tr] [td] Click here to visit Tim's FS Studio!] [/td][/tr][tr][td colspan=2] Last updated Dec. 31 [/td][/tr][/TABLE
February 7, 200323 yr The amount of information depends on the Area. But for my home town in portugal it gives me:Airport:Airport is publicPositionElevationavailable Fuel type approach typeRadarAirspace typeFrequenciesSome of the published SID,STAR and approachesRunways:lenght and wide;Surface type;time of operation;Maybe someone can comment on US database. I went to the manual and checked that indeed the real garmin as TCAS but no weather map it is a stormscope. Meanwhile see this from avweb http://www.avweb.com/news/reviews/182453-1.htmlJos
February 7, 200323 yr The airport info seems very extensive in the US database. There are multiple pages of airport information in the waypoint pages. Each page contains quite a bit of information. Learning to navigate the pages in this device will require practice and RTM is neccessary.Airport Pages include:Location PageRunway PageFrequency Page(s)Approach PageArrivals PageDepartures PageObviously not all of these pages are applicable for every airport. I have only flown out of a couple of smaller airports.I have attached two pics of the first two pages for KFDK (Frederick, MD)Jeff Williams (KDCA)
Create an account or sign in to comment