It may not be that big of a deal that the uAvionix AV-30 electronic flight instrument can’t display course guidance for VHF raw nav data. This is essentially any ground-based nav source including VOR, localizer and glideslope. Garmin’s new line of budget GPS navigators don’t have nav receivers at all (GPS only), and there’s a sizable trend of current buyers skipping VHF nav altogether. But for those needing an instrument to display WAAS IFR GPS guidance, the AV-30 falls short since it can’t handle vertical data. As indicated in the main article, the uAvionix AV-30 just doesn’t have the means of accepting this vertical data from a GPS navigator since it lacks an ARINC converter. That limitation will more than likely send buyers over to Garmin, which has no fewer than five choices for displaying IFR GPS data, plus old-school VHF nav.
The first stop in the shopping trip might be Garmin’s GI 275 electronic flight instrument (lower left). With a form factor that directly replaces most 3 1/8-inch round instruments, the product is targeted at incremental upgrades. That is, add more of them as budget allows. The GI 275 series are independent multifunction instruments that have TSO and STC certification, a 2.69-inch diameter (active screen size) color capacitive touchscreen and an extremely flexible electrical interface potential. They can function as a primary flight instrument, EHSI, CDI, an MFD with synthetic vision, traffic and terrain display and an engine monitor. Let’s break it down, starting with the $3195 GI 275 base model that’s priced considerably higher than the AV-30, but with more nav display and MFD capability.