GNS 430 GNS 430 Exercises - Mockingbird Flying Club

GNS 430 GNS 430 Exercises

Introduction

These are some exercises developed to give people practical hands-on
experience with the most essential and practical functions of the Garmin
GNS 430 GPS using the down-loadable simulator provided on the Garmin site,
or as exercises in the actual airplane. Learning the GNS 430 is very much a
matter of hands-on experience, you learn more by doing than by just reading
the manual. The following exercises demonstrate the essential functions of
the GNS 430 with actual examples from our local flying area (KFSD)that are
presented with step-by-step directions. Follow through the exercises step
by step, and after each exercise do the test exercises (without
instructions) until you can do the test exercise from memory. Then you will
be ready to jump in the plane and use the device! The exercises are
presented in order of the importance of the functions to practical flying.
If you like, you can do only Exercises 1 and 2, and you will be ready to go
out and fly, tuning the COM and NAV (VLOC) frequencies, and view the moving
map. Or you can continue on to Exercises 3 to learn how to set the map
options. Exercise 4 shows how to set a course line to a waypoint. If you
stop right here, you will have a very good practical knowledge of the most
useful features of the unit. Exercise 5 shows how to use and edit active
flight
plans, i.e. set up chains of waypoints from one to the next. Exercise 6
shows how to use and edit flight plans that are saved in the flight plan
catalog for later re-use. Exercise 7 shows how to define and use user-
defined waypoints. Exercise 8 shows how to use the airport frequencies on
the WPT pages to set the COM and VLOC frequencies for that airport.
Exercise 9 shows how to use the WPT pages to get information on airports
and facilities along your route or at the destination. Exercise 10 shows
how to load and fly instrument approaches. At the end of all the exercises
is a "Graduation Flight" that presents an IFR round-robin training flight
that demonstrates all the features of the GNS 430 as it would be used in a
typical IFR training flight.

First, some general points on what the unit actually does. (Skip this if
you already have an idea) The Garmin GNS 430 (and its larger-screen cousin
GNS 530) is a combination mapping GPS that shows a moving map display of
your current location, and a NAV/COM unit that lets you tune two COM and
two NAV (VLOC) frequencies, one "in-use", and one "standby" that can be
swapped with a Flip-flop button. You have to learn how to use the radios in
order to fly with the device and you should know how to operate the map
(Exercises 1-3) to get any benefit from the GPS mapping function. The next
level of functionality is the ability to set waypoints. The GPS database
already contains all existing waypoints, that includes airports, VORs,
NDBs, and intersections, each of which already has a unique identifier, and
exact published geographical coordinates. For example if you program the
Brookings VOR (BKX) as a waypoint, all you have to do is enter its unique
identifier "BKX", and the GPS will know where it is. The
GPS will not use the Brookings VOR itself to navigate (by radio reception),
only the published location of the VOR (or airport etc.) to set the
waypoint. But the GNS 430 can also tune the actual VOR frequency and
navigate by radio reception, if required. This is done by tuning the VOR
frequency for BKX (108.8) in the VLOC frequency field, and pressing the
[CDI] button (Course Deviation Indicator, i.e. the "VOR needle") to read
"VLOC" instead of "GPS". This will only affect the navigation source for
the CDI needle (on your "VOR head" connected to the GPS), the moving map
always uses the GPS signal. When CDI is in GPS mode, the "VOR head" CDI
(needle) will work as if you had the VOR tuned, even if the VOR
itself is out of service. Conversely, when in VLOC mode, the CDI uses the
actual VOR signal (by radio reception). In this mode the CDI will work even
if the GPS system were to fail. For practical VFR flying, there is never a
need to use CDI in VLOC mode, and in fact, that feature is not even
implemented in the simulator provided by Garmin. However, in order to shoot
a published VOR or ILS approach, (as opposed to a published GPS or LPV
approach) you DO in fact have to use the transmitted VOR or ILS signal by
setting CDI to VLOC instead of GPS.The GNS 430 has a message system to
alert you to conditions such as loss of signal, or approach to restrictive
airspaces. If you see the alert "MSG" (message) flash above the [MSG] key,
press [MSG] to see the message, then press [MSG] again to clear the message
and return to navigation.For IFR pilots: There now exist GPS overlays for
many existing ILS approaches,
which you can fly by GPS guidance, including vertical ("glideslope")
guidance, provided that your GPS is "WAAS" enabled (Wide Area Augmentation
system, i.e. GPS augmented by ground-based correction). For example Hanscom
Field in Bedford (KBED) has a published "ILS or LOC RWY 11" approach (DA
383ft), and an overlay "RNAV (GPS) RWY 11" approach (DA 479 ft). You can
tell that this approach gives vertical guidance by the CATEGORY field for
minimums at the bottom of the approach plate, which lists (for this
approach) "LPV DA: 479/50" which means "Localizer Precision with Vertical
guidance" Decision Altitude 479 feet / RVR 50 ft, that is, the LPV approach
is the GPS counterpart to ILS. The plate also
lists higher minimums for non-precision LNAV / VNAV, and LNAV MDA
approaches, which are the GPS equivalent of localizer non-precision
approaches, which do not require WAAS. However when WAAS is available for a
non-precision LNAV MDA approach, the GPS will provide vertical guidance to
LNAV minimums, but with an advisory WAAS glidepath allowing a "stabilized"
(rather than "dive and drive")
approach path. You can tell whether GPS and/or LPV approaches are
available, and whether your unit is WAAS enabled to use them, by using the
[PROC] key ("Procedures", i.e. approaches, SIDs, & STARs) to list all
available approaches for a selected airport. WAAS (LPV) approaches will not
be listed if your unit is
not WAAS enabled.

Terminology

In the exercises the buttons and knobs the GNS 430 will be referred to as
shown below. The small left knob, and small right knobs, as well as the
volume knobs, can be turned, and also pushed and released, like a button.
DTK means "Desired Track", the course line you would like to follow, that
appears as a magenta line on the screen when activated, or as a white line
otherwise.

Download Simulator

Download and install the Garmin GNS430 simulator from:
http://www8.garmin.com/include/SimulatorPopup.html

Starting
Run the simulator. Before pressing the power/com button, go to
, and select GNS 430W
Turn the simulator unit on (small upper left knob).
As in the real device in the airplane, the GNS 430 begins with a self-test
sequence terminating in "OK?", press [ENT]. It then asks you to check the
external HSI / VOR head to make sure the CDI is Half Left, Localizer flag
is Out of View, Vertical CDI is Half Up, etc. If everything is "OK?", press
[ENT].

Initialize position at KFSD:
Set "_ _ _ _ _"
Turn small right knob to get "K____" (enter airport)
Turn large right knob to select next letter
Turn small right knob to select "F"
Repeat to complete "K-F-S-D"
Press [ENT]
Start Simulation

To take off, simply set the altitude to 3000 ft, and crank the speed up to
110 knots (or whatever) and the plane will start moving. Use the heading
bug on the external HSI to set the heading, then click [HDG] on the
simulator panel, or activate a waypoint and click [NAV] to navigate to it
by autopilot. To pause, just set speed to zero. From Exercise 4 onward,
have the airplane in flight, either in HDG or NAV mode, while programming
the GNS 430 to get used to using the device in flight. Get used to setting
the HDG to appropriate direction before hitting HDG.

Exercise 1. Return to default NAV MAP page & zoom:

In case you get lost in the menus, you have to know how to return to the
default NAV MAP page by pressing and holding [CLR]. The actual default NAV
page is about the most useless page of all, showing basically the same
information visible on the external HSI or CDI display, so you need to turn
the small right knob one notch to the right to get to the NAV MAP page, the
most useful page of all. All of the subsequent exercises assume you begin
from this NAV MAP page. Press and hold [CLR] to go to default NAV page.
Turn small right knob one click to the right to NAV MAP page.
Press [RNG] to zoom in and out. Note map scale in lower left corner of map.
This shows the approximate vertical scale of the map in nm. Press [CLR]
several times to set de-clutter level. Note "-1", "-2", "-3" that
appears to the right of the map scale to denote de-clutter level. Bump
small right knob to activate Map Panning cursor. Turn large right knob for
?, turn small right knob for ?. Bump small right knob again to exit map
panning mode. Map panning mode can be used to pan the map away from the
current position to highlight airports, facilities, or airspaces, in order
to get information about them, or to set user-defined waypoints to
arbitrary locations (see Exercise 7). Turn large right knob through NAV,
WPT, AUX, and NRST menus. Note "NAV", "WPT", "AUX", and "NRST" that appear
the bottom right edge of the
display to show which menu is selected. For each of those menus, turn the
small right knob to explore pages. Note the little squares at the bottom
right edge of the display to show which page of the menu is selected. On
each page, Bump small right knob to activate the cursor. Turn the large
right knob to scroll through items on the page. The [ENT] key is used to
select menu items, the [CLR] key to cancel selection. Bump the small right
knob again to de-activate the cursor. Return to default NAV MAP page by
press & hold