GPS approaches into W96

[Bill Kelly]

Some of you may have already noticed that the database update that became available last week for some Garmin products do not have any of our GPS approaches included.  Unfortunately, we did not receive much warning that the approaches were going to be removed, and the notification that I did receive, did not indicate that the GPS approaches would be removed completely.  I contacted Garmin last week and it appears to be a software issue on the Garmin end.  I have included Garmin's email response below.

Hi Bill,

 

Thanks for your e-mail last week. The Garmin systems that support LP approaches are the G1000 (and its variants), the GTN series, and the 400W/500W series.  When you call up an LP approach on any of these systems they look at the descent angle and use it to calculate the GPIP (Glide Path Intercept Point).  The RNAV 11 and RNAV 29 approaches, along with the other approaches on the list, are LP procedures that have a zero degree descent angle contained in the digitized record of the approach.  The descent angle is used in a division operation that calculates the GPIP , and when the value is 0, you have a divide-by-zero situation that will actually cause the unit to reset itself, and in order to prevent this from happening we had to remove the approaches from the databases.  We’re working on fixes for all of the systems that will involve updating the software in each and making changes to how the approach data is structured in the product’s database.  I don’t have delivery dates for any of these software updates but they are all being actively worked on.  Please let me know if you have any other questions. 

 

Best regards,

Bill Parsons

Customer Support Manager

Garmin AT Aviation Product Support

I have been working with the folks in the FAA that design the approaches to make sure that this situation gets resolved as quickly as possible and will let you know as soon as I learn anything further.  My interpretation of the email above is that it will actually require a software update to the equipment rather than just a database update.

Please contact me with any questions,

Bill

804-932-3984
airp...@aol.com