A Press Release received today from Laminar Research, the team behind X-Plane, announces that the sim will be getting a new GPS system, based on the popular Garmin 430 unit, with upcoming build 10.30.

“Laminar Research announces upcoming availability of approach-capable GPS for X-Plane 10.30

South Carolina April 2, 2014

Laminar Research, creators of the X-Plane flight simulator franchise, will be introducing a new GPS navigator, modeled after the popular Garmin 430, in the upcoming release of the new X-Plane update, version 10.30.

The previous versions of X-Plane also included a GPS instrument but it could only do direct-to navigation and could not implement a GPS approach.   With the recent introduction of GPS enabled approach systems at smaller airports, the new GPS in X-Plane will allow customers to practice actual GPS approaches using an instrument familiar to most general aviation pilots. The Garmin 430W is also a popular aftermarket GPS replacement in many older general aviation aircraft, because it is approved for WAAS approaches and thus it is an easy upgrade to allow flying instrument approaches at many smaller airports without an ILS approach.

The new GPS is a drop-in replacement for the old X-Plane GPS, so every X-Plane aircraft equipped with the GNS430 automatically becomes more IFR-capable with the 10.30 update. Laminar will also provide an additional instrument in style of the larger model 530.  X-Plane aircraft designers will be able to use it in their aircraft starting with Plane-Maker 10.30. It will also allow for dual installations that can either use separate flight plans or cross-fill.“