Bendix/King’s KLN90B is abundant on the used market. At under $2000, it’s a good buy, but only if installed for VFR use.

by Larry Anglisano

We’ve had hands-on experience with panel-mount GPS for well over a decade now, spanning an entire generation of small aircraft systems and then some. It’s all surprisingly clear in our memory, dating back to Garmin’s semi-portable GPS 100, a modest launch product that sent the company sailing toward its current status as King of all GPS.

Although it’s hard to recall a time when Garmin wasn’t the dominant player in avionics, the market was, nonetheless, more fragmented in days gone by. Bendix/King pioneered IFR GPS with the KLN90, a navigator that began life as the KLN88 loran. Remember Northstar, Trimble and IIMorrow, the latter morphing into UPSAT before ultimately being gobbled…