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Airport not in GTN 650 database

Auburntsts

Auburntsts

Well Known Member
So I was trying to flight plan to a private grass strip, FD77, Wimauma Air Park, but couldn’t find it in my GTN 650’s database, or at least I couldn’t figure out how to find it and add it to the flight plan (outside of creating a user waypoint). The curious thing is it comes right up in GarminPilot, which is the EFB I use, and is selectable as a waypoint. Any suggestions?
 
GTN vs G3X

I’ve found multiple airports that are not in the GTN but are in the G3X Touch data base.
 
I complained to Garmin several years ago. Their response was that there are no private airports in their data for GTN navigators. You can manually enter them. I just use the internal flight plan on my AFS efis, which their Seattle Avionics database does have private airports.
 
I tested the Garmin GTN650 trainer that can be downloaded.
Direct to FD77, Wimauma Air Park worked.

Good luck
 
What do you want for $11K? The same capabilities of a $500 handheld or a $70 phone app? Sheesh. Seriously, I call BS on Garmin’s decluttering excuse. Because that’s exactly what it is. Even the cheapest app has filtering available through a menu item where private airports can be turned on or off. And Garmin is supposed to have the best avionics engineers and programmers in the World. Right? For Garmin to say that the majority of pilots don’t use or need these valuable safety alternates despite their including them on all other devices is a dead giveaway that it is an excuse. I might also suggest that many private airport owners are good candidates as long-term loyal customers. If they have a private field they might be well heeled enough to buy a whole Garmin panel for one or more aircraft. So something doesn’t smell right and I call B.S. Real reasons for this database stripping might be the hardware doesn’t have enough internal memory and processing power through design oversight or their room full of lawyers went chicken sh#& about one of their “oh my god IFR navigator” being used to fly into non fully FAA approach certified airfields. I would lean toward the latter. It’s preposterous and inexcusable. If anyone else has insights or opinions about this I would like to see them.
 
Jeppeson data

The other option is to use Jeppeson data instead of Garmin data. Garmin Support gave this as a solution when I was working this problem when I first encountered it. The problem with the user waypoint solution is you could only enter five total. That may have changed and you may be able to enter more now. The Jeppeson data was more expensive at the time but contained all the airports. Personally, I would rather have all airports be in my database. In the event of an emergency, more options are better. Garmin is the only system with this limitation of which I am aware. Dynon and Grand Rapids include all airports in the data which is free.
 
Thanks for the replies. I was unaware of the filtering. It’s a non-issue for me. It just caught me by surprise at the time (launching for a poker run) but in reality was a nothing burger for the actual flight as I know how to create a user waypoint. My question was after the fact for the flight and simply me trying to understand why I couldn’t find FD77 in the database and whether it was me or the 650. Now I know.

And yes it’s in the GTN trainer, IF you have the latest version, but not in the actual GTN 650, as previously discussed.
 
I had the same issue with my GTN750

I would plan a flight on in Garmin Pilot and try to send it to the GTN. No can do cause the GTN database didn’t have the airports that Garmin Pilot did. It isn’t ideal and we shouldn’t have to do it but I have resorted to buying the Americas-North (Heli) Navigation Database for my GTN750. The Heli database costs another $100 or so but has all the small private fields.
 
Threads like this make me wish that more people were familiar with Hanlon's Razor.
 
IFR flight navigators

So how do the other manufactures compare ?

To date I have been able to find every airport needed including GA04 in my Garmin G3X database.
 
To be honest I could care less that a private grass strip with no approach isn’t in my IFR navigator’s database. I fly IFR 95% of the time so it’s a non-issue.. This whole question cropped on a rare VFR flight that had multiple waypoints (poker run) and I was perplexed as to why said waypoint was in my EFB but not my GTN. That question was answered and I’m good with it. FWIW I’m perfectly satisfied with both my non-touch G3X and my GTN 650.
 
One workaround

One solution to this issue, is to create the flight plan to the grass strip, using Foreflight on a portable device. Then send the flight plan to your panel navigator. Works great on my GNC355. At this point, it’s easy enough to save the user waypoint.
 
As Skysailor posted, get Garmin to switch your data to Jeppeson.

Same thing happened with my home air park. They switched me at Oshkosh, now have it is the database. Simple call will get any further updates working.

GM
 
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