I realize that Arnav hasn’t been a perfect partner for us current owners. (I’m still trying to put it behind me that they upped the price of the Engine Monitor by $25 after they accepted my order for the unit. That’ll take some time.)
However, I believe that there’s considerable good about them, which seems to be overlooked.
-Their display was very advanced for its time when it was introduced, and it’s still pretty darned good.
-The engine monitor, in my opinion, is terrific and still better that any other options in the market - Cirrus or other aircraft.
-The software upgrade in place now is a considerable improvement over the old, and represents a genuine effort by Arnav to make an improvement to the status quo. Free by the way. (Still doesn’t make up for the $25 they gypped me out of.)
-They were ultimately very responsive to the criticism of the instruction manuals being inadequate. Now, I feel, they’re top rate.
-They have, it seems, come up with an upgrade that can be applied to current units to make them competitive. I emphasize, upgradeable on current units.
-Based on their e-mails that have been published, it appears that they don’t plan to take advantage of us with unreasonable conversion cost on the enhanced unit. Haven’t so far on other things. Moreover, they seem proud of their history in this regard. (Did I say that I’m still mad that they took up the price of the engine monitor by $25 after they had already accepted my order?)
All said, I think they get a pretty good grade, and far better than what they seem to get from this usually reasonable group! Importantly, a divorce would be very very expensive and there’s no guarantee that the new wife will be a good cook a year after the wedding (or whatever).
We have pretty good breadth of experience with these people, and they’re fairly responsive (albeit sometimes late), generally fair (excepting you-know-what) and demonstrate a propensity to want to be a good partner. Could be a whole lot worse!!
As you may have noted from my previous responses, I have wrestled with this issue a lot, especially since my SR22 arrives in less than 2 weeks. However, I believe that you are on the right track. I have also decided to stay with the ARNAV. I think that the Avidyne choice by Cirrus may have kicked them in the butt, but I certainly do not expect them to roll over. They have been around since 1972, and I suspect that they will continue to provide a good, and improving product.
From whence I came, this thing still looks good to me…Paul
Andy, I agree with you. I was fully prepared to hate the ARNAV based on the old SR20 forum but in the almost 100 hours I’ve put on my bird since taking delivery in July I must say that I really like it. The display may not be as pretty as some others but it is very functional and easy to use.
I think ARNAV is customer friendly. I had one of their old R50i Lorans in my Duke and one day it stopped working (it was about 8 years old at the time). I sent it to them and it was back in the plane in one week for no charge. That would be enough to make me forget about $25.
My only concern is that if the Avidyne takes all the business the ARNAV may become an “orphaned unit” and subsequent improvements and upgrades may be few and far between. For now I too am sticking with the ARNAV and hope that it continually improves as it seems to be doing.
Jerry Seckler N1970
I like my arnav although ive only known it for 6 weeks. Im also looking forward to the new software to be here soon. Has anyone receaved and installed it yet, I am wondering how it is.I am going to move forward with my plans to get the engine veaw.So I will be one of us 250 to have faith in there ongoing suport by giving them suport.I also think some new buyers will take the arnav road. So with 300 out there geting updates and new software it will work out. From Don 705DM SR20
I have had my software onboard upgraded to V920AG. It is a clear improvement over the previous version and eliminates many (though not all) the minor bugs.
Have also installed EngineView and find it to be excellent. Again, V920AG is an improvement here as well.
The PC download software, EngineWatch V6E, is also now available. V6D, originally distributed with V920AG, had serious problems with incomplete downloads and should NOT be used. Get V6E from ARNAV.
This last weekend I spent 20 hours with the new Arnav software flying from San Diego to Missouri and back. I was impressed. I really like being able to turn on the airways when ATC throws out nutty clearances. And, the obstruction altitude information was a real comfort flying through the mountains. I’ll give it 2 thumbs up.