No problem with the TSO'd 100.:rolleyes:

Welcome to Australian aviation.:ok: You should be thankful that the aircraft has GPS fitted and you don't have to fly 'old school'.

The fact that these turboprops have a G100 fitted probably reflects the last time any of them had money spent upgrading the avionics.

What work were they doing in 1991-93 and what equipment is used on that work now? I bet that they were good for that time and have been replaced with aircraft that are good now.

All those nice Chieftains from the 1980's became ****box Bankrun machines in the 1990's, some have continued to deteriorate (saw TWB last week... :uhoh:) and others have been given a birthday

Metros are just following a parallel route, over time. :hmm:

My two sents worth;

As a pilot working for one of the few night freigh operators who use G100s in Metros, I can tell you I would never use it as a primary means of navigation. I've had it tell me to fly 30deg off track to what the VOR/DME equipment was telling me to do (and yes i crosschecked the Lat/Long). They also regularly drop out for extended periods.

Luckily most places we fly to have DME so you can still use the GPS Arrival plantes. If they dont than the way I see it is if the company doesn't want to spend the money to provide 'safe and legal' equipment than I'll delay the schedule and cost them a lot of extra fuel and engine time required to conduct sector entries and full ndb approaches but I'm not risking my life or licence for anybody.

As for STARS and SID most Non-Jet procedures can be safely flown without a GPS and if they can not tell ATC you are negative RNAV and they will give you radar vectoring which will often shorten you track miles to run.

NF

G100 was a good bit of gear; used one to track across Oz on a couple of trips; BUT they are old and NOT IFR approved. The batteries are no longer available and once that goes, that is it. If you have one, bung it on ebay and it will be snapped up, for parts.

Didn't a Metro freighter smack into a hill near Tamworth a few years back, using one for a DGA in IMC?

In the same boat are the Trimbles; while they ARE TSO'ed for RNAV (depending on the model and installation), they will not be supported for data by Jepps after the end of 2008; so will no longer be IFR usable - although I'm sure there will be plenty still being used IFR anyway :rolleyes:. "Welcome to the World of Modern Navigation" - read that intro every day on a TNL in a B200, just after the computer check which reads 1994......:p

Like any unit, it's smart to verify accuracy, I used to use a Garmin unit that was strapped to the yoke of my MU-2, shot many approaches using this unit, worked like a charm. Looks like the Russians like Garmin too.

AN-225

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...MPH/AN-225.jpg

There certainly was at least one aircraft on the Australian register that was approved to use the Garmin 100 for IFR opps. CASA issued a special approval of which I personaly have not heard of before or after but the C209 (otherwise known as the C207-900) had "approval without restriction" to use the Garmin 100. Those if you not familiar with the C209 there is some very informative and factual information to be found here http://www.pprune.org/forums/d-g-gen...-poh-hire.html
I cant put my hand right on a copy of the approval, not sure if I still have a copy or not........
Anyway last I heard when some operators from Kakadu and the Kimberlies approached CASA about bringing a few back into the country CASA said they would be unlikely to re-approve the Garmin 100 for IFR opps, kinda sad really.