New Software for the Garmin GTR 200

Just the other day, I was adding up another page in my logbook and out of curiosity I flipped through several pages from the last year. Not surprisingly, I noticed that I continually fly in and out of the same five airports in the local area. Now don’t get me wrong, I took a few long cross-country flights here and there but in general, you can find me flying the friendly skies here in the local area. I bet you’re wondering, “What does this have to do with Garmin?” Garmin announced the GTR 200 COM at Oshkosh this past year, which received great reviews. Many of you have been flying behind it now for about six months and have submitted several suggestions we’re incorporating! The GTR 200 stores 20 user-defined communication frequencies. Software version 2.40 which is available to download today, offers pilots the ability to wire up a remote button, that, when pressed, cycles through up to 20 user-defined frequencies in the standby position. Using a second remote button, pilots may also swap the standby frequency to the active without touching the radio. Also new with the latest software, when the remote button is pressed to swap frequencies, an audible beep can be heard which offers confirmation the frequency swap was made. Don’t have any remote buttons? No problem, you may still use this new feature with the front mounted buttons. Program one of your two user-defined soft keys to be the ‘MEM’ cycle function and you can cycle through your user-defined frequencies, then, use the swap ( <-> ) button to make it active. Feel free to scan through the frequencies without the aid of an airport directory while flying behind the GTR 200 because each frequency is identified with a label below it. In the above example,  “KOJC TOWER” easily distinguishes which frequency is used to communicate at any particular airport. One of the many advantages of having a non-certified COM Radio is you – the pilot, can perform your own software updates! The MicroSD™ Card Slot on the front of the GTR 200 is easily accessible and allows for the latest software update to be done within a few seconds, so updating to v2.40 is fast and easy. So, if you’re like me and find yourself updating your logbook only to find that 90% of the airports you visit are in your local area – the GTR 200 will undoubtedly streamline your local (and cross-country) flying! For more information on the GTR 200, check out the Pilot’s Guide online.