If you own a Garmin GNS 530 or GNS 430 unit and have yet to get WAAS upgrades, you’re running out of time. Garmin issued a service advisory stating that they will be ending WAAS upgrades for non-WAAS GNS 400/500 series products on May 29, 2020. WAAS upgrade orders can be placed up until this date, however, units must be received by Garmin by June 30, 2020.

Repairs will be available for the non-WAAS 400/500 series 28v units with 16W COM Transmitter and all 14/28v non-WAAS 400/500-series units. These units will not be able to be eligible for the WAAS upgrade after May 29, 2020, but repairs will continue to be available after this date.

According to AOPA, the GNS 430/530 series was popular in the marketplace for more than a dozen years, with about 120,000 units sold by the time Garmin unveiled its successor—the GTN 600/700 series—at the Aircraft Electronics Association convention in March 2011. “We couldn’t just make small, evolutionary changes to a product like the GNS 430/530 and expect people to be satisfied with it,” Gary Kelley, then Garmin vice president of marketing, said at the time. “We had to create something completely new that made flying easier and safer. Whatever we did, it had to be so compelling that existing 430/530 customers would want to upgrade—and that’s not easy when you’ve got a product that pilots know, like, and seems to last forever.”

More Info / Get A Quote