F1 GTN Complete

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hobby
Concorde
Concorde
Posts: 1172
Joined: 30 Oct 2005, 12:01
Location: UK

F1 GTN Complete

Post by hobby »

I have been looking at the above product and I am thinking about buying. F1 have combined the GTN750 and GTN 650 into one product now called 'GTN Complete' Price at present about £48.00.GBP

Reading through the product description there are many attractive features but the airport charts are for USA only and the product seems to be aimed at the many flightsimmers who confine their flying to within the borders of the USA.

Does anyone flying their simulator mainly outside the USA use either of these products?

I fly mainly in the UK and Europe and am quite happy using a gps called GPS6 by a man named Munro - available from all popular fs websites. I really do not wish to spent this sum of money unnecessarily but glass cockpits are upon us and the GTN 750 looks very attractive but would it be of real use over Europe?

I shall be pleased to see any comments and experiences of GTN 750 users.

hobby
Concorde
Concorde
Posts: 1172
Joined: 30 Oct 2005, 12:01
Location: UK

Re: F1 GTN Complete

Post by hobby »

So far I have watched several videos by "Chopsticks" which feature the GTN 750 or 650 installed in various aircraft touring Europe. I have not yet seen a ''SID" or "STAR" flown using the GTN 750/650 in Europe. That does not mean that there are no videos of such GTN procedures for Europe, just that I have not seen them. You may recall that the GTN data base holds all such procedures for the USA and many videos using 750/650 flying FSX acft. in the US show how easy it is to operate the GTN equipment.

Having watched many hours of videos on YouTube the sheer attractiveness of the GTN Complete setup plus the collection of zips on the Flight1 website library containing detailed manuals and files to install the GTN 750 in a wide range of acft. persuaded me to buy the Flight1 GTN Complete.
I have yet to incorporate these devices into my Carenado Phenoms 100 and 300 but I might get round to that during the weekend, gardening and household chores permitting! I don't want to sit in front of my computer while the good weather is with us in the UK.

More later.

hobby
Concorde
Concorde
Posts: 1172
Joined: 30 Oct 2005, 12:01
Location: UK

Re: F1 GTN Complete

Post by hobby »

I have tried to install the GTN750 navigation system into my Carenado Phenom 100 several times and have not had a single successful installation! As part of that process I have used, one at a time, two installation programs from the Flight1 library. No go! Somewhat disappointed I came to the conclusion that I had made a bad buy.

I am not alone, for others, who do most of their flying over the USA, have found the same or similar problems.

I went back to the default GPS that comes with the Carenado Phenom 100 and 300 and following instructions from a 'how to' video I tried making a flightplan. The second action one has to complete is to enter the start airfield and to do that one has to 'click' down a ladder until one reaches 'departure' on the way down one should pass 'arrival' - I and many others found that I could not pass 'arrival' to get to 'departure.' So I cannot even start a flightplan using the default equipment in the Carenado Phenom 100 and presumably the Carenado Phenom 300.

Other flightsimmers have also experienced that problem - yet other have not, and some have come to the conclusion that as programmed the GPS fitted to the Phenoms is "system sensitive". Complaints to Carenado have so far resulted in no action by that company.

My conclusions are that the default nav. system fitted to the Phenoms is at present not reliable and this may be why so many tried to replace it with the GTNComplete system. This is a very attractive modification if you fly mostly in the USA but the Garmin Trainer database does not carry detailed information for Europe. You have to have the Garmin Trainer installed for the GTN Complete to work. That's a separate large download.

You might be able to install the GTNComplete program successfully and if you can it would be best to do your flying in the USA. I cannot wholeheartedly recommend the Carenado Phenoms but I have to write that the aircraft itself has been beautifully reproduced by Carenado and there are some really nice RAAF and RAF repaints available. How I wish that the nav. system and autopilot worked well.

For those interested in business jets I would recommend the Freeware Grob SPn Utility Jet for FSX (only) by Andreas Korner who spent 1500 hours over many years on this project. The zip file is: SPnFSX_R313_full.zip

That's all folks!

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