We're all read here on BT the woes of Beechcraft owners with legacy G1000s facing minimal support from the factory trying to get things like WAAS upgrades, general software updates, ADSB, and now NXi. Lots of frustration all around.

I've seen similar issues concerns aired by Mooney, Piper and Diamond owners. But I haven't seen/heard anything from the Cirrus crowd. So how has Cirrus been regarding keeping legacy avionics upgraded? Just curious. Fantasizing a little, but would hate to end up up with orphaned gear with no viable way to upgrade.

Bruce,
I'm no expert on the matter but, on our previous 2011 SR22 I had the service center upgrade the G1000 software. As I'm sure you know, each year Cirrus would introduce new features in the SR line and usually that involved new stuff the G1000 would do. After a few months that software from Garmin, would be approved by Cirrus in the older aircraft. So, after a couple revisions I would take the plane in to the shop and get the new software loaded. The software revision was free, but I had to pay the shop for their time, usually a few hours.
Things like the NXi should involve new hardware, so that is probably a who different matter. I can't speak to the specifics of the legacy G1000 vs the NXi except that the NXi is amazingly fast and the resolution is beautiful.
Best of luck with this,
Robert

Robert - thanks for your input, and on your first post! I'm honored.
Looking forward to hearing your first hand experiences with your current airplane!

Honestly, this is just one of many things I'm cogitating over right now. I'm happy as a clam in my current club situation, but that doesn't stop me from daydreaming.

Hi Bruce, I have the Avidyne Cirrus panel. Avidyne releases software upgrades to continue to improve the functionality of the PFD/MFD. The latest software release that happened about 1 or 2 months ago allowed the MFD to display ADS B weather and traffic. I already have ADS B weather and traffic displayed on my IFD 550 and 440 that also throws that same info on to my iPad. So I have my Avidyne MFD setup to display XM weather and Skywatch Traffic as it did from the factory. Gives me two sources of weather and traffic in the cockpit. XM and ADS-B for weather, and Skywatch and ADS-B for traffic. Sometimes Skywatch picks up traffic ADS B doesn't and sometimes ADS B picks up traffic skywatch doesn't.

But to answer your question, my personal exprience is Avidyne is supporting their panels in the Cirrus. And just in the last month you can take an Avidyne equipped plane like mine and put a full Garmin touch latest greatest in it if you want to do that for some reason.

You could easily upgrade the factory supplied Garmin 430s to 430w to make them waas. The perspective model or Garmin equipped models I am completely unfamiliar with in regard to WAAS and ADS B updates.

I have what we call in the Cirrus world the Avidyne Dream Panel. It includes the Avidyne PFD, MFD, Audio Panel, remote transponder, Nav Com 550/440, DFC90 autopilot. It is just an absolute fantastic system that I am tickled to death with. You can get a lot of bang for your buck in a G2 model Cirrus.

Not that you asked but that DFC90 is simply an amazing autopilot that was like a 10K upgrade for the Cirrus. I know it is available to a lot of Bo's with a Aspen PFD. It is not talked about much, and I have only seen one bonanza with it. I think it might have been one of the first digital autopilots released for GA? I could be wrong.

Roger,
Beautifully equipped! Bet you really enjoy her! Congrats.

Bruce,

I can only speak as a former, not current Cirrus owner. But I can say that I was consistently blown away by Cirrus after sale support during my ownership. Friends who have purchased used aircraft, not directly from Cirrus, also reported to me similar owner and legacy aircraft commitment.

What raises your question or concern?

Again, nothing in particular. Just thinking of ways to spend money I don't have/need to spend on other things such as my kids.
I had just noticed a near universal unhappiness with owners of TAA equipped Textron, Mooney, and Diamond products in terms of the OEM keeping things as current as possible, but nothing from Cirrus owners and it made me curious.

Like Roger above, I flew an SR22 TN with the Avidyne full panel upgrade - loved it! The G1, G2 and G3 Avidyne panels don’t require any support from Cirrus, so can be upgraded without factory involvement. The G1000 panels (starting with the Gen 3 Cirri in 2008) require Cirrus approval for software upgrades. That’s one of the benefits of the pre-G1000 Cirri. I never owned a G1000 Cirrus (although I flew a few of them on occasion) so don’t have a lot of first-hand knowledge, but I’ve been a COPA member for some years now (even though I’ve moved on to a Piper turbine) and have read a number of threads on the topic of future G1000 support.

Short answers if memory serves are: (1) yes, Cirrus still supports legacy G1000 aircraft avionics but in general, Garmin and the OEMs (Cirrus included) have moved on to the NXi platform so don’t expect a whole lot in terms of new features on the legacy G1000 panels from Cirrus or anyone else, (2) no upgrade to NXi has yet been offered (I think that’s true across piston OEMs generally, although I believe that Piper is working with Garmin to make that happen on the G1000 M350 and possibly Mirages too), and (3) Cirrus has probably a couple thousand G1000-equipped SR2x aircraft out there so I would have no concern about them being orphaned by Cirrus or Garmin.

You pay a fairly steep premium for the G1000 Cirri over the G1, G2 and Avidyne G3 models; but you can only get FIKI with a G1000 Cirrus if that’s important to you.

If you’re really interested in getting the skinny on it, consider spending $65 to join COPA - I did that well before I bought my Cirrus and it was $$ well spent - a very vibrant online community with lots of discussion on general aviation and flying topics. You will find the answers for sure on COPA if/when you start to get serious about looking at them.

FWIW, I could have afforded a G1000 Cirrus but was ok with TKS vs FIKI, I much preferred using the Avidyne interface, and used the savings to completely upgrade to IFD 550/440 navigators, the DFC90 autopilot, all new seats and a headliner plus a ceramic coating and still had money left over. But YMMV. Loved the plane though!

Cheers

Bruce,

I have a 2012 G1000 SR22 and have examined just about every other G1000 airframe out there. Cirrus wins hands down. They are on Garmin revision 37 at the moment and already on version 2 of the NXi platform. The one area I would call them out on is utter silence on the availability of an NXi retrofit for existing G1000s.

There are multiple paths to ADS-B compliance, in stock replacement overhaul LRUs for the G1000 and a wizz-bang 24 hour AOG hotline (that they publish). Add COPA to this equation and it become very hard to imagine going back to anything else that doesn’t involve another zero upfront and at least another zero each year.

For reference:

Diamond has no G1000 ADS-B solution
Diamond has no Flightstream 510 support for their current delivery NXi
Textron has no ESP for any Cessna model. I believe they just started delivering it on piston Beech models
Piper has no NXi retrofit on pre 2016 turbine Meridians and no NXi retro on any other G1000 model. I don’t know if they have an ADS-B solution for their G1000 PA46 yet.
I was in Kerrville last week. Avionics support is the least of Mooney’s problems.

There are certainly things to like less about the Cirrus but only TBM has any claim to better avionics support!