Why does the Cessna 172 have both the 530 and 430 GPS systems?

Question

Noob flight simmer here; I get the idea this question is well beneath most of you all so thank you in advance to anyone who may respond to my question.

Just trying to understand why the Cessna 172 has both a 530 and a 430 GPS system.  I checked out the manuals that Laminar Research provides for both units but still didn't quite grasp the difference between them except that the 430 is a little smaller than the 530 (which of course you can tell just by looking at the Cessna cockpit in-game).

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi Enneahedron,

In order to comply with regulations (FAR, LAR, etc) you need to have 2 radio and navigation equipment so, in this case, the 530 works as the first nav and com as well as gps and the 430 is com 2 and nav 2. Also redundancy it's a great thing in aviation so in the unlikely case that you lose the 530 you can still use the 430 ... well that's a very simplified explanation without getting to deep into the regulation (nor mentioning them). Hope I was clear enough.

Keep flying!

Comments

You rock... thank you!