Old Garmin 430 just gave up the ghost after 20 years

Had a GNS 430 go dark mid-flight last Tuesday up near Bakersfield. Screen just flickered and died, had to shoot the approach with the backup Com 2 and a handheld. Anybody got a good line on a used GNC 255 they’d trust?

4 comments

4 Comments

king.eric1mo ago

...and I had almost the same thing happen, except it wasn't the GPS that went dark, it was the whole audio panel. Dead silent, no tower, no ATIS, nothing. Had to land at Fresno with my handheld too, and the battery died as I was calling UNICOM. Now I'm paranoid about anything that's been pulled from a salvage bird. You gotta wonder how many of these units got knocked around in a hard landing or hail storm and just look clean on the outside. That Bakersfield thing sounds gnarly though, glad you got down safe.

nathan1001mo ago

Had a buddy who bought a used GNC 255 off eBay, turned out it came from a plane that got hail damage in Oklahoma. Worked fine for like six months then just started rebooting every time he hit a bump.

park.miles1mo ago

Ngl that Bakersfield thing gives me the creeps. I remember reading a post on BeechTalk last year where a guy had his 430 screen die over the Sierras and he had to shoot the approach with nothing but a handheld and a sectional. Total nightmare. I'd check with Avionics Source like ward.kim said, they pulled a 255 from a trade-in King Air that only had 800 hours on it. Just make sure you get the logs for it.

ward.kim1mo ago

Oh actually I think you might be mixing up the GNC 255 with the GNC 255A. The regular 255 is the older model that doesn't have the same audio panel integration. But yeah for a used one I'd check Aircraft Spruce's classifieds or maybe call Avionics Source in Long Beach, they usually have some pulled from trade-ins. Make sure you get the one with the right software version though, some of the early ones had that glitch where they'd lose the database mid-flight which is probably not what you want after that Bakersfield scare.