Picked a Garmin G600 instead of the Aspen E5 for our 172 last month

The shop I work at was upgrading a Cessna 172 and I had to choose between these two glass retrofit units. I went with the G600 because the local avionics guy said parts would be easier to get. Install went fine but the magnetometer mount gave me a headache for 3 days. Anyone run into calibration issues with the G600 after install?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_richard5d ago

Had a buddy who swore by the Aspen E5, told me I was making a mistake going G600. Changed my mind real quick after helping him chase a weird heading drift for two weekends straight. That magnetometer calibration is a pain but once you get it locked in the G600 just works. Plus when his Aspen needed a new display module he was grounded for three weeks waiting on parts. Not knocking the Aspen but that wait time alone made me glad I went the other way.

cameron_craig5d ago

Three weeks for a display module? That sucks but honestly how often do these things actually fail. I've heard way more horror stories about Garmin support being slow too. Every brand has a delay at some point. And the heading drift thing sounds like a pain but that could happen to any unit if the install was sloppy or the magnetometer placement was bad. People love to blame the box when half the time it's the wiring or the panel shop.