Indeed, if it is too late for you to change school or vocation, I highly recommend you should consider working as a trainee in a reputable aircraft maintenance shop and learn some basics. As it was suggested earlier, you should also make a point to go to some aviation events such as AeroExpo, AirVenture, Avalon or similar. Even if they are more than 20 miles away.
Spend some time in and around airfields and learn at least something about general aviation, avionics, aircraft systems, etc.
Of course, there has to be DESIRE, without some degree of desire, interest and passion, all is pointless.
I have a PPL, I have been in hundreds of airports in multiple countries and I have used a Garmin GPS during an engine emergency. I can assure you I have enough passion for this.
I can also see that you have little understanding of what 4th year of Aeronautical Engineering is like. Can you imagine how much time I would spend traveling to places if I had to do research on the scale you are suggesting for every one of my projects? No, I didn't think so. Perhaps you are unaware of the amount of coursework we need to complete for all of our subjects not including the projects this year. No one expects us to go find actual F27 operators a gazillion miles away. And WRT the general avionics questions that I am asking - an internet forum with people who are in the industry and are willing to help is plenty enough.
Now I better understand why some aviation technocrats, out of so called "aeronautical engineering schools," and end up in SMS, maintenance planning, parts purchasing, audits, etc., are creating so much havoc in the industry and, have no clue whatsoever of what they are doing.
A/C maintenance has little to do with Aeronautical Engineering at university level. We are not learning how to fix planes. We are learning about the principles of aircraft aerodynamics, fluid mechanics, aeroelasticity. The only thing even slightly related to maintenance in our course are the structures lectures but again these are more to do with the physical aspects of materials WRT a/c construction. Furthermore, we have nothing to do with avionics... the "systems" people deal with that.
Why exactly you expected us to come out of the box as being great in any of the disciplines you mentioned above, is beyond me. Perhaps you are confusing what we do and what they do in college? We are not learning to be mechanics, we are learning how to be the spear head for future break throughs in aviation.
So you either want to help or you don't. I have a feeling I have squeezed as much as I could out of this thread. And I have no interest in wasting time here any further.
I appreciate the help that was provided previously and I have taken all of it on board. If someone else could contribute something further, that would be greatly appreciates. Especially in terms of costs associated with maintenance of avionics and GPS systems.
PS. To your latest question if you need a WX radar (vs. EFB or MFD uplink weather only): you should know that the mosaic of data displayed on your MFD is far from being "immediate" as it is obtained and processed from multiple NEXRAD sites, the information could be more then 20 minutes old (cf. NTSB safety alert on limitations of cockpit weather displays).
I "should know" it? OK. I'll take your answer as a "no, you don't need the WX radar as the info displayed is not immediate while the EFB's data link provides accurate real time weather".
Thanks.