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WAAS Upgrades: Swell But Not Simple

In the world of avionics, we learned long ago that most projects arent nearly as easy and inexpensive as initially anticipated. If your shop or the avionics vendor says, "easy job, no sweat," count on the invoice being higher than you thought it would be. This is definitely proving to be true with the long-awaited WAAS upgrade for Garmin GNS430 and GNS530 navigators. Make no mistake, the $1500 upgrade Garmin promised entails a major overhaul of these boxes and delivers lots for the money.

Larry Anglisano
Verified

In th

e world of avionics, we learned long ago that most projects arent nearly as easy and inexpensive as initially anticipated. If your shop or the avionics vendor says, “easy job, no sweat,” count on the invoice being higher than you thought it would be. This is definitely proving to be true with the long-awaited WAAS upgrade for Garmin GNS430 and GNS530 navigators. Make no mistake, the $1500 upgrade

WAAS Upgrade

Garmin promised entails a major overhaul of these boxes and delivers lots for the money. But its not the plug-n-play upgrade we all hoped for. Were finding a short list of surprising nuisance hassles.The short history is that WAAS for Wide Area Augmentation System is a multi-billion dollar upgrade to the basic GPS system. It was necessary to improve horizontal and vertical accuracy for near-precision and precision GPS approaches and is seen by the FAA as fundamental infrastructure for future air navigation. It arrived years late and is vastly overbudget, but according to the gurus in the technical community, its largely delivering on its claims.

Garmin was initially unenthusiastic about WAAS market demand and it spent its developmental resources elsewhere. But the then UPSAT morphed from the old IIMorrow line surprised the market in 2003 with the announcement of the WAAS-capable CNX80, at a time when the satellite segment of the system was just reaching initial capability.

Hedged Bets

At the time, demand for WAAS was uncertain, since few buyers clearly grasped the benefits. Hedging its bets, Garmin did what any self-respecting billion-dollar company would do: It bought UPSAT, including the CNX80 WAAS technology.

The idea was to adapt this to the GNS430/530 product line, but this proved more daunting and time-consuming that Garmin imagined. Garmin delayed certification of the WAAS-capable 430/530 series several times before finally catching the golden ring in early 2007.

Long before it had nailed down the specifics on how these navigators could be upgraded, Garmin offered owners a flat $1500 upgrade. And thats where we are now: Garmin is making good on the promise for WAAS upgrades.

New Boxes

As it upgrades the older navigators, Garmin is also selling new GNS430W and

Larry Anglisano

Editor in Chief Larry Anglisano has been a staple at Aviation Consumer since 1995. An active land, sea and glider pilot, Larry has over 30 years’ experience as an avionics repairman and flight test pilot. He’s the editorial director overseeing sister publications Aviation Safety magazine, IFR magazine and is a regular contributor to KITPLANES magazine with his Avionics Bootcamp column.