I like to pride myself on staying up with the latest technology, but I have obviously been slipping when it comes to the Jeppesen Database Update process. I have owned 430Ws for many years, and ever month (ok – sometimes I miss a few) I haul out the Jeppesen Skybound adapter and plug in the proprietary Garmin data cards, waiting for the downloading, the uploading, the erasing, the writing….waiting for all of it to complete and praying that the dog doesn’t trip over a power or data cord in the meantime.
Well boy – have I been behind the times! We are currently doing some testing on both the Avidyne IFD440 and the latest Garmin box in one of our airplanes, the GTN650. I hadn’t had the pleasure of updating these boxes before, and when I stepped through the process on the Jeppesen web site, I was pleased to find the latest Jeppesen Distribution Manager, or JDM. Downloaded the Mac Version (I am usually a PC guy, but at the magazine, we use Macs), kicked it off, put in my password and was shocked to see the various updates sitting there with the words “Drag and Drop onto the Device”. I plugged in two thumb drives, dragged the databases to each one, and in a very short time, the JDM said it was done! Wow….just like that!
No more difficult than copying photos from a camera drive these days – imagine that. Welcome to the second decade of the 21st Century Paul.
