Since ADS-B is on the horizon, you may wonder how to best leverage a WAAS upgrade to comply with the ADS-B mandate. We have no idea. Actually, that's not entirely true. The final rule on ADS-B compliance will not appear for another month or so and we'd hold off on any upgrade until then to be sure, but it's pretty clear that basic compliance can be done with a WAAS GPS and the Garmin GTX 33OES transponder. The GTX 330ES has ADS-B output but gets its position data from a WAAS GPS, such as the 400W, 500W or GNS 480. Garmin says legacy non-WAAS GPS systems won't cut it because WAAS is required in the ADS-B mix due to requirements in vertical accuracy and overall integrity. The connection is via an RS-232 serial bus and GNS software version 3.30. The software upgrade is available in the field at no cost to owners. If you already have a GTX 330 and legacy GNS product you'll need to upgrade both units for ADS-B output.
展开▼
