Caring For Your Avionics

The avionics upgrade is an important moment for any aircraft owner. It often represents a significant time and financial commitment depending on the depth of the install. The goals of an avionics upgrade are typically to improve flight safety, situational awareness and add features – all while increasing the overall value of the aircraft. Nevertheless, once the installation is complete, most avionics require basic care to maintain optimal functionality and ensure prolonged service.

Cleaning Screens

Many of our latest avionics such as the GTN 650/750 series navigators and G3X Touch flight displays feature touchscreen capabilities. While touchscreens provide great user-friendly interfaces similar to the mobile devices we’ve become accustomed to in our day-to-day lives, the repeated touching can create smudging, which could lead to screens becoming more difficult to read. No need to fear, the cleaning process is quick and simple to keep screens looking as bright and vibrant as ever. Most products will have a Clean Screen Mode, this will make the touchscreen inactive for manual cleaning. On the For example, on the GTN series, select the ‘Utilities’ page from the main menu, then select ‘Clean Screen’ to activate Screen Cleaning mode. The front bezel, keypad and display can be cleaned with a microfiber cloth, a soft cotton cloth dampened with clean water or an eyeglass lens cleaner specified as safe for anti-reflective coatings. Be sure not to use any cleaning agents, especially those containing ammonia, as these could harm the anti-reflective display coatings.

GTN 750 touchscreen GPS/NAV/Comm.

Memory Card Care

Database memory cards are arguably one of the most important components in many of our avionics. For IFR operations, databases need to be updated every 28 days to maintain the latest navigation information. Unless you have a Flight Stream 510 enabling wireless database updates through Database Concierge, the database update process requires pilots to manually remove the database card and update it via a computer. The best way to ensure longevity for these cards is to simply exercise careful handling during removal and installation, as well as anytime in between. If you’re looking for a way to simplify the database update process with your GTN touchscreen navigator or G500/G600 flight display, be sure to check out our Flight Stream 510 Database Concierge feature. This allows databases to be uploaded wirelessly in the cockpit via a mobile device utilizing the Garmin Pilot app.

Garmin supplemental data card.

For any other questions you may have on maintaining optimum performance levels for all of your Garmin avionics, be sure to contact our award-winning product support team at aviation.support@garmin.com or 1-866-739-5687.

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