Garmin Avionics Stack Overhaul

This sim is brilliant in so many ways. I love the default GA aircraft fleet with the exception of the Garmin implementations. Please consult with Garmin to get their avionics products straightened out in the sim. I’m not even asking for every function to be represented, but solid basics to cover the most typical IFR use cases.

As a real-world pilot, I put a lot of value in sims that can closely replicate what I’m flying. One pretty common item in GA is GPS as well as Autopilot units. More specifically, some very common units - especially in the “older aircraft” we typically see for sale or rent - are the Garmin 430 and 530 (WAAS please) as well as S-Tec autopilots.

While I don’t expect them to be fully functional (that would be fine), I’d like to see the same level of operation that we see in some competitors’ base products.

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Well, I had a couple of hours on the 430 during my flight training and I do have also some kind of ideas how it should work within the sim, but I also do totally understand that the including Garmin avionics are not working 100% like in the real world and I assume for most of the people, there is no need to have this depth in functionality as we are looking for.

Basic functionality, like flying “a direct to” out of an existing flight plan should be available in my eyes.
It tried it a couple of times in the sim, but the 430 was only displaying the next active point from the loaded flight plan.

This is the chance for third parties developer to sell their already available products (for other platforms at the moment, of course), which then have a certain system depth. Need to say that even products from Flight1, or RealityXP does not have 100% of the functions as their real counterpart, but I would say with about 95-98% they are really close. :wink:

Is it also possible to expose the events for the 530 and 430 so we can connect GPS hardware to the sim. These units also need to match the real deal. Use / refer to the free Garmin simulators to make them match like RealityXP uses.

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I use RealityXP for the 430 and it matches my 172/R trainer almost perfectly. I would like to see the ones is FS2020 get much closer to the real ones, they are pretty far off right now. We also need a way to connect hardware to them. At the moment I was unable to find any events associated with the knob and button functions on the 530 and 430.

Mark

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Yes it would be nice if the Garmins had more functionality. Right now they’re almost just eye candy on the dash with hardly anything working correctly. Not even the GPS nav works in AP

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Mark: What is RealityXP? I am frustrated with the 430 in FS2020.

RealityXP and Flight1 both make GNS and GTN GPS for P3D and XPlane, and hopefully will come to MSFS. They’re full-function and very high quality. :small_air: :smiley_cat:

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BuffyFoster has it right. One of the things I like about the RealityXP GPS is they use the Garmin training simulator under the covers so they are a very accurate model of the real GPS.

Mark

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@ android111

It can work,

all depends to internal driver/communication protocol type, in case of GPS f.ex. If you’re skilled in communications programming you can easy create bridge between that GPS (if you know protocol) and sim. On other side, that GPS use serial interface and can be connected to USB/RS232 (422/485) adapter to NTB/PC. What is maybe next option (I don’t know exactly) is FSUIPC usage, there can be set output/imput ??? to GPS but if that protocol is this standard I don’t know, Pete can say as developer, try ask him.

Before starting with the RXP stuff (which I own and used for years) - look into updating the database. I’d visit the AVSIM forum and read through.

FWIW I eventually got Navigraph because I needed a sensible way to reliably have an updated, current database that matched my real- world flying.

The RXP stuff is fantastic functionally, but convoluted when it comes to updating the database.

This would be a good starting point:

I built a Garmin 530 and 430 for XP but they’re only half functional in FS only because there’s no way to bind half the keys… Even simple stuff like zoom. Would be nice if we could at least bind all the keys

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To get the garmin right and accurate an official partnership would be awesome!

Only binding the keys is insufficient. How would it help if there is no proper functionality behind the keypress?

I was hoping for that since day one. That will be the best approach.
Other partnerships are also a good idea. Dynon for example. Many planes are equipped with it. It will be the perfect training platform for their ideology. A few months ago, I did happen to be on a plane equipped with Dynon Avionics and it was a disaster.

I’m thinking mainly about the C208 and G1000, latest default versions. It’s nice to see the OBS feature now. Following on from that, I would like to see the settings saved, so the G1000 has the same settings next time we start MSFS. At the moment things like Track Up etc need setting each time we start MSFS. While I’m doing my small wish list, more user changeable settings and knobs, would be good too. The guys at WT had the 530 & 3000 humming and were good examples of what I’m talking about,they were on the right track, so to speak. I realize there’s been an amalgamation of staff in this department, so I’m hoping for some progress when it comes the the Garmins, fingers crossed.