Just returned from Sun N Fun and had a brief conversation with Seattle Avionics. 

Went to their booth to tell them they needed to start doing Nav Data for the Avidyne IFD 440 that I have.

Here's what they said...take it for what it's worth...

We are working on, and probably 10 months away from having nav-data available for the Avidyne products to replace Jepp and for $99.00 a year.

I said great, but I'm not holding my breath.

That is straight from the horses mouth, so now we wait and see.

Can Avidyne comment on this possibility?

LANCE wrote: Thank you Steve!  Updating the Seattle Avionics data on my Aspens takes hours. My Jepp data on my IFD500 takes seconds. My time is easily worth pay $299 for Nav Data from Jepp.

Those are two very different sets of data. What takes you so long with the Aspen data update from Seattle Avionics is that you are updating over 20,000 NACO charts as individual PNG lossless compressed raster image files, totalling over 4 GB of data. That's writing a new FAT32 table entry on your SD card for every one of those 20,000 images. I'm sure that there was a speed/fidelity/format design trade-off years ago when avionics hardware was more limited. Another trade-off which could be made is to only install the NACO charts for the states/regions you will use, rather than the entire United States. This is what most EFB apps do for NACO charts/procedures.

NavData from Seattle Avionics would be vector data and would not take a significantly different amount of time to update your IFD than it presently does with Jeppesen NavData.

data sets are not the same. 

If you'd like apples to apples, when I still had a charts database with Jepp for the Avidyne it took maybe 90 seconds. Charts for the Aspen on Seattle Avionics takes overnight. If I could get charts from Jepp for the Aspens at three times the price I would gladly pay it.

The big question is why would Avidyne allocate any resources to switching data providers when it wouldn't net them one dime? They already have a reliable data provider that everyone who purchased an IFD was aware of at the time of purchase. This is a moot subject. Avidyne has worked, at no advantage to themselves, to get the pricing lowered for us. Could we possibly just let this subject rest and let Avidyne work on things that would allow them more profits for greater sales and us more features? GI275 compatibility, VNAV step down capability, etc, etc. 

Other than supplying the data format requirements to Seattle Avionics I don't know why Avidyne would care who provides the database, unless there are some other deals going on in the background that we are not privy to.

as mentioned above Seattle Avionics provides the georeferenced approach plate images, you are not getting those from Jeppesen charts or navdata. 

+1 .... incl getting 10.3 out the door with RF approaches. 

dmtidler wrote: Not being familiar with the Aspen or Dynon units; does Seattle Avionics supply actual nav data for those units or do they only supply ChartData (i.e. georeferenced approach charts, airport diagrams, VFR sectionals, IFR low charts, & IFR high charts)?

What Seattle Avionics provides for the Aspen Evolution Flight Displays (EFD) is only applicable to the MFD and is a digitized (raster) version of the entire FAA Terminal Procedures Publication http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/productcatalog/ifrcharts/TerminalProcedures/%20" rel="nofollow - https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/productcatalog/ifrcharts/TerminalProcedures/

NavData, obstacle, terrain and cultural database data come from Jeppesen presently as vector data which is rendered by the EFD for display. This includes the same low & high altitude enroute data displayed by the Avidyne IFDs.

Hope this helps.

Reference: 150hrs flying with Aspen 2000 MAX + IFD540 (>400hrs) in my airplane. 

EDIT: if you want to view an FAA sectional, TAC, or Lo/Hi Enroute chart, you'll have to display it on your EFB.

See http://aspenavionics.com/support/database" rel="nofollow - https://aspenavionics.com/support/database for more info about data used by the Aspen EFDs.

See http://www.dynoncertified.com/charts-airport-diagrams.php" rel="nofollow - https://www.dynoncertified.com/charts-airport-diagrams.php for info about data used by Dynon displays. Nav Database is supplied by Dynon, possibly repackaging NACO, Seattle or Jeppesen data.

+1

Here is the FAA AC, you may want to pass this along to Seattle avionics.

https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_20-153B.pdf

 I hate Jepp as much as anyone but Unfortunately, I'm afraid this is who we are stuck with.....

Unknown the position of the primary person in the booth I was talking to, but both (only) individuals in the booth were in agreement. 

Like I said in my original post..."Take it for what it's worth" and "I'm not holding my breath".

Only time will tell.

Is that a valid comparison for navigators / FMSs? Is Dynon SV HDX using NAVDATA or charts? I.e., do they have coded instrument procedures including waypoints, holds, altitude and speed restrictions, coded into the database for flight plan retrieval?

To my knowledge, Thales Group, Rockwell Collins, Lufthansa Systems, GE(?) and Jeppesen are the only certified providers of navdata.  It would be great if Seattle Avionics is getting their own Type 2 LoA. I'm not holding my breath.

http://https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_20-153B.pdf" rel="nofollow - AC 20-153B is the current FAA guidance for NavData authorization. The Dynon website implies that they may be getting some data (obstacles? Navdata?) from Jeppesen and packaging it for SV HDX.

To shoot an IFR approach with a Dynon HDX, you have to have a separate navigator, like an Avidyne or Garmin unit, with its own separate navdata, as others have mentioned. 

The SA data displayed by the HDX is not what drives an approach. You still need to pay for the Jeppesen or Garmin NavData used in the certified IFR navigator, on top of the $99 to SA. 

The price of the nav data does not drive sales for Avidyne or Garmin, it's the features of the navigator that does. If it's $99 vs. $299 in the grand scheme of owning an airplane it's pennies.

For reference, when I started buying NavData for my IFD just over 5 years ago, I paid almost $500 for just the western half of the US. Now I get all of the US for just under $300. I far the prefer the Avidyne UX.

We've all been hoping that Jeppesen would get some NavData competition in the GA space for a long time. If SA can pull it off, great. They'll have to also do a lot of the LoA work. I already have a SA lifetime subscription to charts for my Aspen 2000 MAX.

annual NavData subscription for $299 per year for my IFD540.   I don't

get the charts as I much prefer looking at them on my tablet with IFLY GPS.

program.

Bob