400/500 Series Weather Data Link Pilot’s Guide Foreward This Pilot’s Guide is written for GARMIN 400/500 Main System Software Version 2.26 (400 Series) and 2.11 (500 Series) or above, and is not applicable for earlier software versions. © Copyright 2002 GARMIN Ltd. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. GARMIN International, Inc., 1200 East 151st Street, Olathe, KS 66062, U.S.A. Tel. 913/397.8200 or 800/800.1020 Fax 913/397.8282 GARMIN (Europe) Ltd., Unit 5, The Quadrangle, Abbey Park Industrial Estate, Romsey SO51 9AQ, U.K. Tel. 44/1794.519944 Fax 44/1794.519222 GARMIN Corporation, No. 68, Jangshu 2nd Road, Shijr, Taipei County, Taiwan Tel. 886/2.2642.9199 Fax 886/2.2642.9099 ® Except as expressly provided herein, no part of this Pilot’s Guide may be reproduced, copied, transmitted, GARMIN is a registered trademark of GARMIN Ltd. or its subsidiaries disseminated, downloaded or stored in any storage medium, for any purpose without the express prior and may not be used without the written consent of GARMIN. GARMIN hereby grants permission to download a single copy of this manual express permission of GARMIN. and of any revision to this manual onto a hard drive or other electronic storage medium to be viewed and to print one copy of this manual or of any revision hereto, provided that such electronic or printed copy of this manual or revision must contain the complete text of this copyright notice and provided further that any unauthorized commercial distribution of this manual or any revision hereto is strictly prohibited. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. GARMIN reserves the right to change or improve its products and to make changes in the content without obligation to notify any person or organization of such changes or improvements. May 2002 Part Number 190-00231-05 Rev. A Printed in Taiwan SECTION 1 Section 1 INTRODUCTION Introduction The GARMIN 400/500 series units provide the display interface and control for satellite uplinked How it Works: textual and graphical weather on a request/reply basis. Transmissions are made using bursts of compressed data at a rate of 4800 bps. NEXRAD and METAR data is collected by the National Weather Service and disseminated to Meteorlogix™, a weather information Functions provided by the Data Link system include: provider. This data is then delivered to Echo Flight (a delivery systems • Request for and display of NEXRAD radar imagery. provider) via geostationary satellite to a weather server in the Echo Flight Message System. The system immediately makes the data • Request for and display of text-based METAR data. available to Echo Flight users. • Request for and display of a compressed form of METAR data that allows icon representations at With the weather data always readily available on the system, an reporting stations on a moving map indicating visibility, ceiling, etc. incoming customer request is fi lled, logged and turned around for delivery via ORBCOMM in less than fi ve seconds (ORBCOMM is a • Position tracking services are provided through periodic position report transmissions from the provider of global messaging services using a constellation of 26 400/500 Series unit. low-Earth orbiting satellites). The weather data is then forwarded to ORBCOMM where the Weather Products ORBCOMM Message Switch (OMS) relays the message to the The following weather products are available for display on the 400/500 series unit via the appropriate Ground-Earth station (GES) for delivery to the satellite. The message is relayed from the satellite to the Garmin GDL 49 Data Link interface: Data Link Transceiver aboard the aircraft. Once the GDL 49 receives • NEXRAD Data the message, it is displayed on the 400/500 Series unit. • Graphical METAR Data • Text-based METAR Data • Graphical Temperature/Dew Point Data • Graphical Wind Data 1 body.indd 1 5/21/2002, 3:56:48 PM Section 1 WARNINGS and CAUTIONS Introduction To reduce the risk of unsafe operation, carefully review and understand all aspects of the GARMIN 400/500 Series Pilot’s Guides, including all warnings and cautions. The Global Positioning System is operated by the United States government, which is solely responsible for its accuracy and maintenance. The system is subject to changes which could affect the accuracy and performance of all GPS equipment. Although the GARMIN 400/500 Series Units are precision electronic NAVigation AID (NAVAID), any NAVAID can be misused or misinterpreted and therefore become unsafe. Use the GARMIN 400/500 Series Units and the Data Link Weather Interface at your own risk. To reduce the risk of unsafe operation, thoroughly practice basic operation prior to actual use. When in actual use, carefully compare indications from the GARMIN Series Unit to all available navigation sources, including the information from other NAVAIDS, visual sightings, charts, etc. For safety, always resolve any discrepancies before continuing navigation. The altitude calculated by the GARMIN 400 Series Unit is geometric height above mean sea level and could vary signifi cantly from altitude displayed by pressure CAUTION: NEXRAD weather data is to be altimeters in aircraft. GPS accuracy may be degraded by the U.S. Department of Defense-imposed used for long-range planning purposes only. Selective Availability (SA) program. With “SA” on, GPS altitude may be in error by several hundred feet. Due to inherent delays and relative age of Never use GPS altitude for vertical navigation. the data that can be experienced, NEXRAD weather data cannot be used for The Jeppesen database incorporated in the GARMIN 400/500 Series Units must be updated regularly short-range avoidance of weather. in order to ensure that its information is current. Updates are released every 28 days. A database information packet is included in your GARMIN 400/500 Series Unit package. Pilots using an out-of-date database do so entirely at their own risk. This Data Link Pilot’s Guide is not intended to replace the documentation that is supplied with the applicable GARMIN 400/500 Series Unit, or the GDL 49 Installation Manual. The user of the Weather Data Link System should know how to operate the 400/500 unit and be knowledgeable of the information in the 400/500 Pilot’s Guide. 2 body.indd 2 5/21/2002, 3:56:50 PM SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION Section 1 Weather Products .......................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction Warnings and Cautions ................................................................................................................. 2 Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... 3 SECTION 2: NEXRAD OVERVIEW NEXRAD Description .................................................................................................................... 5 NEXRAD Abnormalities ................................................................................................................ 5 NEXRAD Limitations..................................................................................................................... 5 NEXRAD Intensity......................................................................................................................... 6 SECTION 3: NEXRAD OPERATION Requesting NEXRAD Data............................................................................................................. 7 Data Received Message .................................................................................................................. 9 Your GARMIN dealer will confi gure the applicable Displaying NEXRAD Data on the NAV Weather Page..................................................................... 9 Weather Data Link interface equipment. The screen display examples shown in this Pilot’s Guide are taken Customizing NEXRAD Data on the NAV Weather Page ............................................................... 10 from the GNS 530, which provides a larger viewing Displaying NEXRAD Data on the Map Page................................................................................. 11 display for better presentation quality. Interface functionality is the same for all 400 and 500 units. Customizing NEXRAD Data on the Map Page.............................................................................. 11 Displaying NEXRAD Data on the Default NAV Page .................................................................... 12 Customizing NEXRAD Data on the Default NAV Page................................................................. 12 Request Shortcuts........................................................................................................................ 12 Data Link Request Log Page ........................................................................................................ 13 Sending Position Reports............................................................................................................. 13 3 body.indd 3 5/21/2002, 3:56:51 PM Section 1 SECTION 4: METAR OPERATION Introduction Requesting Graphical METARS.................................................................................................... 15 Displaying Graphical METARS on the NAV Weather Page ........................................................... 16 Viewing Graphical METAR Data for a Specifi c Airport from the Map Page................................... 16 The Weather Legend Page...........................................................................................................