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Garmin GNS 430
Garmin has sent a letter to its aviation customers, reminding them that its highly popular GNS 430 was introduced in 1998, which was 25 years ago. And 25 years is a significant amount of time when it comes to technology. While many of us have household appliances that old or even older and still functioning, can you imagine using a personal computer that is 25 years old? Of course not. But in aviation, where we fly 70-year-old airplanes as if they were just rolled out of the factory hangar a few years ago, it’s not easy for many of us to accept that some of our technological equipment has practical life limitations. However, it does, and Garmin’s letter was a gentle way to remind us all that nothing truly great lasts forever.
I still vividly remember the day back in 1998—how could that have happened!—when the late great Garmin sales representative Tim Casey invited me back to a small cubicle at a major trade show to reveal to me his company’s latest product, a panel-mounted box with a large, bright display that he told me was called the Garmin 430. I was completely blown away. This revolutionary device in a standard width package seemed capable of doing just about everything. It was a world-class GPS navigator, a visually captivating flip-flop comm radio, an FMS, and much more. I immediately knew that I was witnessing the future of aircraft electronics.
And I was right. Over the past quarter of a century, the electronics manufacturer based in Olathe, Kansas, which has risen to become the leader in electronics for small to medium-sized aircraft, has become ubiquitous in the avionics panels of light planes. Although the GNS 430 wasn’t their first panel-mount product, it surely accelerated the company’s path to success and, not long after, dominance, as it became the one avionics product that every light plane owner simply had to have in their panel. Since its launch in 1998, Garmin has sold nearly 150,000 GNS-430s. It’s difficult to say how many buyers installed more than one in their panels—a dual GNS-430 installation was a popular option—but that still means that a large percentage of light planes have flown with a 430.
Another significant revolution for this product was its price. While around $10,000 might not seem cheap to today’s buyers, who are accustomed to getting a lot of functionality for a relatively small price, at that time there was nothing that could come close to matching the value proposition of the GNS 430. And remarkably, this was true for well over a decade, perhaps even longer. In a single box, the GNS 430 provided pilots with capabilities that they couldn’t find anywhere else at any price, and at a cost that allowed for widespread adoption at a level not seen since the days when King’s Silver Crown avionics components dominated the light aviation skies in the 1970s. And the Garmin box could perform the work of an armful of previous-generation technology products, and more, all for the price of a fraction of that armful of old tech.
Garmin GPS 175
It’s tempting to jump to the conclusion that the letter from Garmin is simply a corporate ploy to sell new products to old customers, but that’s not the case at all.
When a washing machine part wears out or breaks, it’s not difficult to find a replacement part, even for machines that predate cable television. Long after the manufacturer stops making those machines, you can still locate the parts. Part of the reason is that these parts are often used in subsequent products, and in part it’s because third-party companies create clone parts that you can simply install and continue with your washing routine. However, computer parts are quite different. Remember that the avionics revolution that began to take shape in the 1980s was the result of smart and agile companies leveraging existing computer parts and technology to create products for our light planes. This eventually led to the emergence of products like the GNS 430, among many dozens of others from Garmin, Aspen, Avidyne, and more. That meant using off-the-shelf products in aviation applications—after going through many of the FAA’s requirements—or contracting with those computer parts manufacturers to build parts for your aviation product.
Here’s where it gets tricky, and where our dreams of having evergreen products fade away. When a company like Garmin contracts with a parts manufacturer to build digital components for a product line, it doesn’t contract for that partner company to produce those parts indefinitely. It agrees to purchase a certain number of those components based on its prediction of how long the product line will last and how many of the screens it will need to replace during that lifespan. If, back in 1998, you guessed that the GNS 430 would be produced for 20 years and sell 150,000 units, well, you would have been correct, and those were indeed Garmin’s estimates, which is quite remarkable that they took such a huge gamble with an investment in a product that they had no way of knowing for certain would be a huge success.
Now, 25 years down the line for the GNS 430, Garmin is indeed running low on certain parts—our best guess is that the display is the main concern—and that means they might not be able to repair broken 430s for much longer.
Under unusual circumstances, with the introduction of the GTN series of touchscreen multifunction navigators by Garmin a few years ago, used GNS 430s became highly sought-after items on the used market, selling in many cases for more than their original retail prices even as thousands of owners replaced their 430s with the new-generation Garmin navigators. Will those used 430s purchased to save a few thousand dollars turn out to be a poor investment? Maybe. But that’s the risk of such gambles.
The replacement path for those owners and for others who have had 430s in their panels for several decades is a GNX product. The GTN 650 Xi has the same form factor as the 430, and it offers a wealth of improved capabilities. Its larger panel counterpart, the GTN 750 Xi, is an entirely different story. For starters, it’s extremely large, so large that it can serve as a pseudo flat-panel multifunction display, and these new products are integrated with a host of others that were only a glimmer in Garmin’s planners’ eyes when the 430 was being developed.
These products are not cheap, costing roughly a third more than a 430 would if it were still being produced today. But they offer so much more functionality. And for those owners who are less brand-conscious, quality products from Aspen and Avidyne, among others, provide compelling options.
The bottom line is this: Avionics are not as long-lived as aircraft airframes in terms of product life, but for now at least, that’s acceptable, as the replacement pathways for products approaching obsolescence are numerous, relatively affordable, and both attractive in terms of capability and ease of use.
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