installation of gns 430 in a 36

[chavins]

i recently installed the a 36 and am extremely happy with the aircraaft and its flight. i am, however, very confused about the reality xp gns 430. i have not figured it out yet and i am not sure whether it has been installed properly. it ids difficult for me to understand use of information from garmin, from reality xp and from dreamfleet, becaause most of theinformation appears to apply to the real gps unit or to one of the xp units, and i am uncertain if the a 36 unit has all the functionality referred to in the different manuals.

fs 9 and the aircraft appear to be fine. i mention this because some of the threads suggest that there were problems at that level. i know that i have installed the 2 garmin training items because i have shortcuts to train430.exe and shortcut to gnc400wt.exe. what i am not sure about is whether i installed the reality xp gauge pack. the .exe file is here buti do not recall executing it myself and do not know if it self-installed. i cannot find a folder named gns430 either in program files or in fs9 root folder or on drvie c, or anywhere else. does this mean that i have not installed the gauge pack?

i also note that the installed gns 430 has nav data from jeppesen which is dated feb 2002, and i found no information on updating this except for the real garmin unit. can someone clarify which nav data base i should have? although the 430 initializes ok and tracks my flights, i have not seen any ils tracks or similar data on the screen, compared with the default fs9 gps.

i realise that i have not yet mastered the gns 430. i will be continuing to work with the pilot manual and the garmin trainer, but meanwhile i would appeciate it if someone could answer for me some of the above questions about the installation of the unit.

steve chavin

[ToddNicholson]

Steve,

I suggest you start here if you haven't already done so:

http://www.flightsim.com/dc/dcboard....g_id=285&page=

Basically the 430XP in the A36 is the same as the standalone 430XP sold by RXP. There may be very minor differences, but I'm not exactly sure. Both units are modeled after the real Garmin 430 - it is a nearly identical simulation, so you can use the real Garmin manuals to learn it.

Since the 430XP uses the real Garmin Trainer database, you cannot update it (unless Garmin themselves updates their trainer database, which is unlikely). You will not see ILS feathers (just as you wouldn't in the real Garmin), so this is not an issue.

From what you describe, it sounds like your unit is operating correctly, so it's just a matter of learning its ins and outs and becoming more familiar with it.

[chavins]

dear todd:

thanks for the kind and helpful reply. i am still puzzled about the folder gns 430, which is referred to in some of the threads, but which i have been unable to find. can you enlighten me about this issue? i guess i will just soldier on with the 430; it is not so very different from the pa 28 unit or from the default 500 unit.

thanks once again.

steve chavin

[ToddNicholson]

The GNS430 folder that you're speaking of is only related to those few who have an issue actually installing the 430. For some unknown reason, on a few systems, the Garmin system has a problem being installed on some people's systems. So, for those that have the problem, it was advised to use a shorter folder name (hence Garmin430, which the user has to manually create and point the installer to). You don't have this folder because you have no issue with installation. Hope this clears things up a bit :)

[chavins]

thanks for the info. i had figured this out last night, after yet another re-read of the various manuals and notes. no more questions for the moment. let me puzzle over things myself for a while. then i will probably be back at the forum.

steve chavin

[RealityXP]

Todd, it is actually a name with less than 8 characters that matters. The suggested folders become: C:\GNS430 and C:\GNS530 (for the 500 Trainer)!

Hope this helps!

Jean-Luc