In the IFR On a Budget article in the May 2020 Aviation Consumer we favored Garmin’s GI 275 flight instruments for their drop-in physical installation, stepping-stone upgrade potential and liberal third-party interfacing. Since running that article, we found ourselves shopping for a budget EFIS upgrade for one of our test beds—a 1966 Cessna 182J. Our real-world lesson in upgrade economics is worth sharing as a follow up.
Faced with shotgunning both the vacuum-driven AI and DG—to the tune of $2000-plus—we got quotes for two Garmin GI 275 electronic flight instruments (that’s one shown above). One GI 275 would function as an AI and the other as a DG/electronic HSI. There’s also ADAHRS reversionary capability where if the primary GI 275 AI failed, the secondary GI 275 set up as an electronic DG could take over. Out comes the vacuum system since the STC doesn’t require it, and out comes the turn and bank instrument. The quote was $11,980, and $7700 of it represented the price of the two GI 275s—the rest was labor. But at those numbers it made sense to consider the larger, 7-inch version of Garmin’s G3X Touch. It’s priced at $7995—nearly the same as two GI 275s. It seemed like a no-brainer.