$2,400.00 To Unlock The Charts. Say Whaaaattt????

It's aviation, it's expensive. And most of that cost is to pay for lawyers. Watched a friends dad years ago machine a bronze bushing for the scissor linkage in the nose of his Bonanza.

"Bill, why don't you just buy that bushing?"

"Because lawyers make a $5 part cost $320."
LOL, so true.
 
Not an isolated case.

I've got a AV300 WSI weather receiver in my Bonanza, which uses the Sirius satellite system. Dealing with WSI is far and away 1000x better experience than dealing with XM. When I call WSI for an issue (rare), I always get a live person, and always the SAME live person, and the kicker is I pay about the same per month than a similar XM subscription.

I use a MX20 MFD and the AV300 uses it as a display device. It's old and slow, and Garmin no longer supports the device. The screens are known to flake out, and so my only recourse when it goes bad is to find a replacement off of eBay or similar.

I'd probably consider upgrading to a GMX200, which is faster and supports more WX options, but Garmin, in their infinite wisdom, locks out the GMX200 from natively supporting the AV300 like the MX20 does. You have to purchase an unlock card from then to the tune of $3500 to allow the device to enable functionality I already have. Obviously I reject that on principal, so the money I would have spent on the GMX200 remains in my 100LL avgas fund, and probably ensures that any future upgrade will come from Avidyne or Aspen.

Richman
I understand that principle. And BTW, we have the GMX200 in our airplanes but it appears we will some day in the future have an ADS-B setup.
 
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