On the Bonanzas to Oshkosh flight, the waypoint TABMY was added to the planned route on the day of departure. This waypoint was not in my IFD540 database, but was in Foreflight and in the Jeppesen database on my Trimble 2000 Approach Plus. I stopped by the Avidyne booth, and the representative pulled up the waypoint on an IFD440 in the display booth with no problem, and we concluded that I probably had a corrupted database.

I have since re-downloaded the 1808 database, and downloaded the 1809 database, and TABMY is still nowhere to be found. That is also true for the IFD Trainer app on my iPad, which has the 1809 nav database. I have tried to determine what role TABMY plays in the airspace system, and according to Airnav, it seems to be an RNAV waypoint in a special instrument approach procedure.

This is not a big issue, since I suspect that any waypoint that I am likely to actually need to use will be in the database. However, I am curious about why I cannot find it, since it seemed to be in the database of the unit in the Avidyne display booth. Perhaps there is some setting active in both my IFD540 and the trainer app that prevents this waypoint from being accessed, but I cannot imagine what that would be.

I am curious about whether others can see this waypoint, and whether anyone has any thoughts about why I may not be able to find it.

Best,

Bob

Sorry I failed to mention that. It is Americas coverage for Navdata on the IFD540. The coverage on the Trimble is Full USA.

Please understand that this is not a complaint, and I am not expecting Avidyne to drop the important work that they are doing on various product enhancements to answer this question. If there is a simple answer, though, I would like to be aware of it.

Thanks.

Bob

Including helicopter data in the standard database is something that's been on my to-do list.  Coincidentally, I had a couple of other related issues in the last day or two that took it to critical mass, so I just wrote to Jeppesen to get the process started.  It probably will take a cycle or two for it to be included.

At that point, if the Bonanza group again opts to use a helicopter waypoint for some reason, you'll have it in your IFD.

Thanks for solving the mystery. I has a feeling that it might be associated with a helicopter approach to WS70, and tried identifying my aircraft as a helicopter on the IFD540 setup pages, but that did not do the trick. I did not realize that there was actually a different database for helicopters.

One never knows to what nefarious uses some of these obscure waypoints may be put.

Best,

Bob

I thought this was done-- if you have Jepp charts for any of the IFDs you should be able to use the Jepp charts in Foreflight, and/or in the IFD100 app. Are you not seeing that behavior?

I had a subscription for Americas NavData and Obstacles for the IFD-540. It cost $788. I had it because I flew to Mexico earlier this year.

IFD-540 Prices:

Whole US NavData/Obstacles: No bundles available. NavData is $480 and Obstacles $185 or $665 for both.

Whole US NAvData/Obstacles/Terrain and Charts: $940

IFD-440 Prices:

Whole US NavData/Obstacles/Terrain bundle: $564

Terrain hasn't changed since 2015. 

EFB seat for charts: $199. Better to buy the seat from Foreflight if you use that. Theirs includes use in a couple of Pads and a phone. The Jepp license is for one device.

GNS430W: Their bundle includes a seat for charts for an EFB. The GNS430W itself doesn't get charts The rep claims this was an enticement since Garmin also offers their own nav data. The previous rep said this was a negotiation between Garmin and Jeppesen. I didn't get into the pricing but it is in the $400-$500 range.

Fun fact: your quoted prices for charts are about $200 less than what I was quoted for the same product, which is why I ditched the chart bundle and went navdata/obstacles-only using the 440 package.