I was flying the V35B Bonanza a few days ago and discovered that it had a special ability, it could follow the blue course boxes enroute and all the way around the teardrop to the turn onto final.

It did this without me sifting through any of the EFB flight planning possibilities which was a surprise to me, so I then attempted to replicate this result on another GNS 530 equipped plane, the basic C172, but without success. I had a good look through the EFB route planning facility but I couldn't find a path to match the boxes.

No doubt those blue boxes define a formal flight path, but I can't see how to setup the GNS to follow them. Has anyone figured this out yet? Is it a limitation that the C172 has but the V35B hasn't?

Check this reply from Matt @ Working Title. I am guessing this worked for you in the Bonanza because the route was either following NAVAID waypoints that happened to set you up for final, or (more likely) there was an IFR procedure programmed into the GPS and the autopilot was following that. The GPSes can't follow the visual patterns that are programmed into the EFB, and that is where those blue boxes come from.

Edited April 26, 20251 yr by Funky D

Ah, yes. Thanks for that. That would explain why they're always a couple of thousand feet above the ground.

For what it's worth, I have an update to this post.

It now seems that piston planes have the ability to follow the path defined by those blue boxes. To activate this path in the GNS or the G1000 all you have to do is select Direct as your approach procedure in the EFB, which in practice means deselecting any approach procedure.

I haven't tried deselecting the departure procedure because it still interests me, but if you're interested in flying the blue boxes then give it a go. You'll have to manage vertical nav on your own of course, but those blue boxes do have a purpose you can hook your AP to.

All of this may not be a surprise to you, but I just thought I'd update the above for the sake of any search engine queries.

Interesting find. Are you participating in the beta 2?

No, I'm not. This appears to be it's native behaviour, and in view of the ubiquity of these boxes they seem to have always been a meaningful design element.