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Garmin Australian Charts Available

Dynon is still the better deal all round. And I could afford either. I can be accused of being biased though.
 
Good Morning!

The base subscription cost for a G3X Touch - Australia Database Bundle is $299.95 and includes the below.

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Best Regards,

Brad
 
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Brad
Thanks, I was reading from the Garmin press release, which must had abbreviated info on pricing.
In your screenshot it says USD299.99 is the 69% discount price.
So regular price will be USD435.
When does the 69% discount apply, and when does it end?
John
 
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Hi John,

Thank you for your question and I am happy to clarify, I can certainly see how the wording can be misleading. The higher price noted in the press release is the PilotPak which is inclusive of all cockpit equipment including certified avionics like the GTN and TXi series, G1000 series, etc.

For the G3X databases alone, the 69% discount is *Savings shown as compared to purchasing annual subscriptions for each included database. So purchasing the Australia Database Bundle saves 69% vs purchasing each included subscription individually (NavData, FliteCharts, IFR/VFR Charts, Airport Directory, SafeTaxi, and Terrain).

Therefore the price you see of $299.95 USD is the up front price of this database bundle. No expiration or special program! You certainly could choose this bundle and update only individual portions in the future if you wish.

By establishing an account on https://fly.garmin.com/fly-garmin/, you can add your aircraft and equipment, then access the many flexible database purchase options directly.


Best Regards,

Brad
 
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I just downloaded a VFR Chart database for the Aera 660.

As a one time download (not a yearly subscription), it was A$50-00.
VTC, VNC, and WAC's on my first look.
 
Whilst it's great that these charts are now available, an annual VFR subscription for my Aera 660 will cover the following:

Navigation Data, SafeTaxi, IFR/VFR Charts, Airport Directory, FliteCharts, Terrain

TOTAL: AU$385 per year. Not a bad little earner for a AU$1200 device.

Alternatively, if you purchased AVPLAN-EFB for your favourite mobile device, you get all that the Garmin device offers plus live flight tracking and ADSB:

AUD$ 109
VFR & IFR Charts and ERSA
Full flight planning
ADSB In
AvPlan Live flight tracking
Full NAIPS support
AvPlan Cloud Support

https://www.avplan-efb.com/shop/australian-subscriptions/

It also allows you to use this on 3 devices per subscription. Reading the FlyGarmin website as it currently stands, it appears that I have to purchase the AU$385 package for two devices if I want any level of redundancy in the cockpit, so AU$770 per year vs AU$109

Looks like we've still got some way to go.

I could understand that this data could be prohibitively expensive if it was something that had (A) never been done before or (B) wasn't already data paid for by us through our fuel taxes and freely available in PDF form on the internet, but it has been available for a while from Dynon, Aus Runways and AVPLAN at reasonable prices and it's freely available in PDF form from the government website. I just find it a little difficult to stump up an amount of money equivalent to approximately half my annual fuel bill for something that really has a market price of $109.

The free charts and associated data is available here:
http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/aip/aip.asp?pg=60&vdate=08NOV2018&ver=1

I paid a little more to install Garmin equipment on the front end, and really appreciate the clear concise documentation and felt that it was worth the investment. I just didn't think I would be so taken advantage of on the backend. I do feel a total fool for this, and shouldn't have got so immersed in the technical integration aspects and thought instead about databases during operation, but I didn't and I'm paying the price. Hopefully however we can see some reasonable database update costing numbers coming out of Garmin in the future so that I'm not the only builder around me with Garmin equipment installed.

Regards,

Tom.
 
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I wouldn?t necessarily blame Garmin.
I?d hate to think how much Australian bureaucracy had to be negotiated in order to provide the functionality legally - and I?m sure it?s not free for them to reproduce.
Given the relatively small installed user base here it?s unlikely they will make any sort of return on investment.
I think we are lucky they bothered at all. I didn?t think they would.
I happily flew around for many years without it but there?s no question it would be a welcome improvement, especially for IFR ops.

Agree there are plenty of other ways to get the data cheaper. I used to just print off my own approach plates new and A4 size before each flight.
I see this as paying for good integration. Is it good value for money? Everyone will have a different answer to that depending on their mission.
 
I wouldn?t necessarily blame Garmin.
I?d hate to think how much Australian bureaucracy had to be negotiated in order to provide the functionality legally - and I?m sure it?s not free for them to reproduce.
Given the relatively small installed user base here it?s unlikely they will make any sort of return on investment.
I think we are lucky they bothered at all. I didn?t think they would.
I happily flew around for many years without it but there?s no question it would be a welcome improvement, especially for IFR ops.

Agree there are plenty of other ways to get the data cheaper. I used to just print off my own approach plates new and A4 size before each flight.
I see this as paying for good integration. Is it good value for money? Everyone will have a different answer to that depending on their mission.

Richard,

Thanks for the consideration and benefit of the doubt. You act like you may have some experience with this type of integration task. Based on the many requests we have had in the past, I hope many customers find this data to be valuable.

Thanks,
Levi Self
 
I too welcome this from a Garmin, and thank them. They probably now realise why so many of us in Australia have a low opinion of CASA (our equivalent of FAA).
I had become resigned to it never happening after so long.
One off purchases are within my budget for avionics and the 660.
I still will keep Ozrunways, as it and AvPlan are superb apps and the traffic/tracking is invaluable.
 
Hi Richard,

Whilst I don't deny that bureaucracy can be a little difficult to deal with at times in Australia, my point is that this road has been paved by a number of parties already. Given that I am a lifelong addict of Garmin equipment, I would blindly hand over 100% more money for updates compared to what their competitors are asking, but to ask 700% more to update two devices in my panel compared to what other companies are offering for a similar solution I think really stretches the love. Don't get me wrong, I love the G3X Touch/Aera 660 combo (ok, there are a few other bits of Garmin Wizzidary in there also) and it's run flawlessly. Building the avionics/electrical system was the most enjoyable part of my entire build, it's just that I think there is still room to improve on the database costing side to bring it in line with the competition here in Australia. I don't mind paying a healthy premium to feed my Garmin addiction but in my mind it just shouldn't be an order of magnitude more. First world problems really. Perhaps I just need to stop sounding like a brat and just get back to fixing climate change.

Tom.
RV-7
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