GTN650 Approach Selection

[RV7ator]

Why won't my GTN650 offer up available approaches for the destination airport on an active flight plan? I'm following the buttonology of the manual, but it just goes around in circles and asks me to enter the airport identifier.

Does Garmin, in their less than infinite wisdom, shut off access to the approach (departures & arrivals, too) if the data base has expired? Even so, when stabbing around haphazardly in the past, I was surprised to see the procedures keys were illuminated and active. How I got there, I haven't a clue.

Is there some dark secret about driving one of these difficult contraptions, such as it must be in some mode or other not made clear in the manual?

Brother, do I like ILS. Tune frequency, transfer, fly the approach. Idiot simple. ADF is even simpler: tune the frequency. But then, you must be more pilot than radio operator.

John Siebold

[FORANE]

Some airports have approaches the GTN 650 does not show. See here:
http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...&highlight=35a
Does anyone know when this will be resolved?

Perhaps this was not related to your trouble. I know Garmin will only allow an approach selection for the last airport in your flight plan; I really dislike this "feature".

[Brantel]

It is easy:

Go to the HOME menu

Press the PROC button

Press the APPROACH button that does not look like a button it has a bunch of ------------- on it.

The default airport should be the last airport in your flight plan. If you want a different airport, you can change the airport.

Then press the Approach button that is another one of those ------- buttons. This will give you a list of the available approaches.

My database is over a year expired and all the approaches still show up.

[xblueh2o]

Originally Posted by RV7ator

Brother, do I like ILS. Tune frequency, transfer, fly the approach. Idiot simple. ADF is even simpler: tune the frequency. But then, you must be more pilot than radio operator.

Truer words were never spoken...in private aircraft anyway.
The user interface in larger aircraft avionics is head and shoulders above that which is available in small aircraft. I have played with a GTN 650/750 and it is a huge leap over the 430/530 interface but it still leaves something to be desired.

[RV7ator]

Thanks, Brian, that's per the manual and how I poke it. The -------- buttons all say "no approaches (or arrivals or departures) available". The destination airport at the end of the flight plan is also displayed....just in case I want to change the airport, but changing the arrival airport doesn't make the buttons happy, either. (They DO all have RNAV approaches, BTW. My paper charts say so! )

We trust our lives to these miserable failure-prone computers. Over the last ten years I've experience countless computerized avionics failures in the RVs. One vacuum failure in a 172. Have we made progress?

Tomorrow I'll try accessing the --------- buttons via the waypoints info from home page. At the moment, I think this box is busted.

Anyone else with some insight?

John Siebold

[ColoRv]

Have you spent any time at all on the phone with Garmin's experts? They have always been quick to find my errors, I'm sure they will find yours as well.

[Sig600]

Originally Posted by RV7ator

Does Garmin, in their less than infinite wisdom, shut off access to the approach (departures & arrivals, too) if the data base has expired? Even so, when stabbing around haphazardly in the past, I was surprised to see the procedures keys were illuminated and active. How I got there, I haven't a clue.

They should if they don't. My database is current, so I can't tell you if it gets turned off... but just like it's not legal to fly with expired plates, they would be doing you a favor disabling terminal procedures that are expired. Subtle unnoticed procedural changes have gotten people hurt. I can tell you flying professionally, if the database in the FMS isn't current, we don't even board passengers let alone go flying.

As far as computer evolution... I owned one of the first Magellan handhelds, I was instructing when the KLN89B was the most advanced IFR navigator on the market (it was amazing, still is). I remember when things like the G1000 and G3X were nothing but fantasy. Twenty years ago we were doing human factors studies to see if off the wall ideas like synthetic vision and highway in the sky were just too over the top to be plausible.

Equivocally and emphatically I would answer yes to the question of whether we've made progress. If it's such a miserable failure prone piece of gear, may I suggest you remove it? Perhaps its the indian and not the arrows?

Try googleing "GTN650 simulator" and download one of the ones available. There is also one for ipad through the itunes store. Lastly, try youtube, it's loaded with videos.

[BobTurner]

Is the database yours, or borrowed? I believe the GTN series won't work with any data card but one you paid Garmin for.

[Brantel]

Originally Posted by RV7ator

Thanks, Brian, that's per the manual and how I poke it. The -------- buttons all say "no approaches (or arrivals or departures) available". The destination airport at the end of the flight plan is also displayed....just in case I want to change the airport, but changing the arrival airport doesn't make the buttons happy, either. (They DO all have RNAV approaches, BTW. My paper charts say so! )

We trust our lives to these miserable failure-prone computers. Over the last ten years I've experience countless computerized avionics failures in the RVs. One vacuum failure in a 172. Have we made progress?

Tomorrow I'll try accessing the --------- buttons via the waypoints info from home page. At the moment, I think this box is busted.

Anyone else with some insight?

John Siebold

If this does not work, most likely the box does not know it has a database, the approaches you are looking for are not in the database or something is wrong with your database. Is your database card damaged? Does the GTN show databases installed during boot up?

Is it possible that the RNAV approaches were published after your database release date?

[Brantel]

Originally Posted by ColoRv

Have you spent any time at all on the phone with Garmin's experts? They have always been quick to find my errors, I'm sure they will find yours as well.

Sure wish this forum had a LIKE button!