These two new products from a company already established with a great reputation for leading edge advanced Flight Simulation Instrumentation have done it again. Their first product FSFlightMax ($34.95) has been very successful. After the release of that complex add-on they have taken the base knowledge from that programming and released two of the most popular "wish-list" add-ons that most small plane owners dream of. Using the flightsim version is as close as I will ever come to getting one of these in my Cessna 210. The real world devices are somewhere over $10,000 U.S. by time of fitting and that is for the smaller one. There is little difference between the 430 and the 530 except size and ease on use.
This review will look at the 530. However in FS2002 (and by the way these work on X-Plane a well) they are moveable and resizable. What do the Garmin 530 and 430 do? Basically these devices will do everything but make coffee while you fly. They are WAAS upgradeable (when it arrives) and are an IFR GPS, com, VOR, LOC and glide-slope with a built in color moving map. There is a Jeppesen database built in (in the fsavionics version it is world-wide and there is a choice in loading for detail in N American or Rest of World) which can be updated. Included in this database are airport details, comm. Frequencies, VORs, NDBs, Intersections, FSS areas, Approach details, SIDS/STARS and even SUA information. The Flightsim version. My recommendation is for the 430 if you are installing on one computer. If you are setting it up through a network and WideFS (as was done on this trial version) then I would suggest going for the 530, as it is a more visible version.
(Here is the Garmin 530 set up on WideFS) It also shows the available PDF "real" Garmin manual. However they can both be resized so it is not critical in the flightsim world. The installation is quite straightforward and the company is great at communication and follow-up. I have used the FSFlightMax and had great service and it is evident from the forums on both this and the newer 430/530 that their great follow up to questions is continuing. There appear to be a large number of very satisfied customers. I am certainly one of these and have nothing but praise for John Hnidec, and his group, in the way they patiently deal with customers' queries. The forum needs to be examined however and in there are the patches needed already to upgrade these programs. You may have to look around the forum for relevant answers to any problem you have and perhaps it will be searchable eventually. I had one particular problem with loading the 530 on the second computer through WideFS and one email pointed me to a patch, which solved it overnight, even through the Christmas period. The 530 Trainer software is part of the package
and is essential. Fsavionics have teamed up with Garmin to produce this authentic product and the online training device is available to owners of the real instrument as well, but not at the $30 price range! The real instrument manual is available to flightsimmers and is 214 pages, but you will have to go and use it to maximize this very complex software. As usual, I was too impatient to use manuals and started flying around and pressing buttons on the instrument, but pretty soon I discovered that it is necessary to explore it. I downloaded the full Garmin manual in PDF and read it whilst playing with some flights on the 530.
I set up an IFR flight from Victoria B.C. to Newport, Oregon as a starter. Now this barely explores the potential of the 530 as it does not get involved much with arrival procedures and approach plates. It is a good start to get familiar with the instrument. I had to manually load the flight plan and emailed fsavionics to ask if I can import from FS2002 or export indeed. This was on New Year's Eve. The very next morning, even though their site had a "Closed for Holiday" notice, I received an answer from John Hnidec. "At the moment there is no facility for importing or exporting FS flightplans. This feature is currently being worked on and we intend to include that in version 1.1 if possible. The autopilot facilities at the moment are also quite simple. If you activate a flightplan within the Garmin and the Shift+Click the FPL button it will link up and activate the FS autopilot. Shift+Click the FPL button again to break that link. Again, in 1.1 we will have fully integrated autopilot. Our 1.1 release is actually going to be a major release (should really be a 2.0 release) including the above features as well as real weather radar and TCAS facilities.
this solved the problem for me as the flight plan can be easily set up within the Garmin first. I would not consider there to be any need to wait for purchase for the next release as there is so much to learn anyway and the additions are bells and whistles. To link up with real weather and view it on the weather radar on the 530 will be amazing and a TCAS as well! The image included shows part of that flight in a Cessna Caravan.
The 530 can be viewed as part of the original panel, on a second monitor, or through a network with WideFS. The track can be "North up" or "Track up". I did not notice a hit on frame rates running it on the first computer. As usual I ran FSMeteo and FSNav and Final Approach, all great programs.
In fact you can almost get away with the Garmin 430/530 as a substitute but there would be details on the approach plates not available on the Garmin. You can fly the whole approach on it however with the procedure turn showing after choosing the relevant approach. This takes flightsimming once again to a new level of professionalism. I have had several current instructors (unlike me who is now a Dinosaur), familiar with advanced real world simulators, who are astounded at the level of complexity of the latest flight sim programs, especially this one, and add-ons and it is really a matter of the stamp of approval, but there is little doubt that the latest sims exceed the capabilities of most simulators under $30,000. So with Fs2002 and a decent computer and the Garmin 530 and a couple of other add-ons you might spend $1500 U.S. in total. The flight proceeds down the Washington coastal range uneventfully One thing I quickly learned was that any fiddling you may be doing on the Garmin can be undone by clicking on the "CLR" button and holding it. This returns you to the basic "Nav" screen at any time. This is handy when you get lost messing around with the myriads of features in this advanced instrument. It is a beautiful sunny day as I fly down the coast on Dec 31st in the afternoon (real weather courtesy FSMeteo) and the accompanying image.
shows the enroute weather. I was passed off to Seattle center 126.6 and the Garmin 530 picked this up fine.
The weather changed here with low laying fog and an overcast at about 300'. It became IFR or VFR on top at least. I cruised at the assigned 11,000' altitude until closer to Newport. Map scales are quite adjustable on the Garmin and also on screen information is user choice. You have choices of Bearing to Destination (BRG), or Distance to Destination, Enroute Safe Altitude, ETE, GS, Track Angle Error, Vertical Speed Required, Course to Steer, Desired Track, ETA, MSA and some other choices. I did a speed up on the time frame and Fs2002 threw me out of an IFR flight plan! So now I am VFR on top and have to try to land at Newport. Well we can try out the Garmin and do a nearest airport search and pick some approaches, which are built in. The plates appear to be needed for altitude details still. So at this point we did a nearest airport search. This is done by rotating the outer dial on the right lower side of the Garmin. It immediately indicates which airports are VFR and which have approaches. Astoria KAST is the closest airport and has an ILS. Hitting the "Direct to" button sets up the Garmin to tell me which way to head, and I track 170°. The 530 tells me to set course to 182° so I follow instructions. The weather changes again at this point and I am visual, but I want to see how much more I can get from the 530. Hitting "Proc" brings up the choices and I choose the ILS for Runway 26 Approach. This is automatically loaded and activated and I am told to steer 257°. The holding pattern is shown on the Garmin. The Garmin indicates to me a rate of descent to get to 4000' for the approach and takes me West for a while and then brings me back on 040° to do the procedure turn to the East of the airport. I cross check this with "Final Approach". The weather is nice now except for fog patches. Periodically the 530 flashes to tell me there are messages with course corrections indicated. I zoom down to a 10 nms. Scale which is overzoom range but gives me better control over my turn to the outbound leg. The procedure turn is after the 201 PEN NDB and all this is on the 530. All I do is follow it. You can set the scale to autozoom, as on most GPs units and this is what I have done. I pass PEN and get ready for the procedure turn. You can actually zoom right down to taxi around airports by the way! I have to guess outbound course as "Final Approach" has a glitch and forgot to put the course angles in. You really don't need them with the Garmin 530; it is on the screen anyway. Things are happening fast and furious now and I am trying to type as I go, but I overshot the inbound turn and the Garmin flashed at me to turn back on course! I had to hit "Pause" and take a breath and go and make tea, the stress is getting to me!
On the Approach the 530 flashes in bright letters when I am off track. It continues telling me what to do until touch down, things like "tune VOR/LOC to correct frequency" and course corrections. The Approach autopilot in FS2002 seems to be off in its heading choice but the Garmin keeps me on track. Finally the flight is ended at Astoria.
This is a powerful piece of software and already I rank it up with my top three of "Don't fly Fs2002 without" add-ons. Any flightsimmer or private pilot wanting to move around in the IFR world should consider this software and even the current IFR pilot could utilize it and drool. I have only explored the surface so far. There is no doubt that once again fsavionics have proved themselves to be at the cutting edge. Their software is not "eye candy" for FS2002 but true virtual reality advanced technology. I have to rate it as the most complex and interesting piece of software I have ever used in flightsimming. To give a further example of the detail available on the Garmins 430/530 here are some of the map details available.
Included Map Coverage: