A builder planning an IFR panel this year has a new choice. The usual route is a big display for flight and engine data, with a separate IFR navigator, NAV/COM and audio panel stacked beside it. Garmin's AXIS puts the navigator, radio and audio panel inside the display. Dynon has said it is developing IFR GPS for SkyView HDX, but it has given no price or date, so an HDX panel planned for IFR still needs a navigator from someone else.
Here are the three routes priced for the same job: one 10- to 12-inch primary display, an IFR GPS navigator, a VHF NAV/COM and an audio panel. Prices are list prices as Garmin and Aircraft Spruce gave them on October 27, 2026. Each route still needs its own sensors (the air data and attitude unit, magnetometer and temperature probe), antennas, harnesses and install kits, so these totals are a starting point, not a panel price.
G3X Touch with a GTN 650Xi and GMA 245: $22,370
The Garmin G3X Touch GDU 460 10.6-inch display lists at $5,425, the GTN 650Xi navigator and NAV/COM at $14,995, and the GMA 245 audio panel at $1,950. This is the route most Hangar Flying designs this year still take: the GTN 650 appears in 381 of the 2,455 designs members started.
Garmin gives the GDU 460 as 4.6 lb and 3.57 in. deep behind the panel, the GTN 650Xi as 7.0 lb and 11.25 in., and the GMA 245 as 1.1 lb and 8.09 in. That is 12.7 lb of display and stack before trays and connectors.
AXIS 11.6 GPS/NAV/COM with audio: $20,975
Aircraft Spruce lists the 11.6-inch AXIS with IFR GPS, navigation, communication and audio (the GDU 116NC) at $20,975, for experimental aircraft. Its new-install kit is $395, and Spruce offers a sensor kit (GSU 25C air data and attitude unit, GMU 11 magnetometer, GTP 59 temperature probe) at $1,860. Garmin says AXIS uses the same panel cutouts and mounting points as G3X Touch. In this comparison it is the only route with no navigator or radio in the stack, which leaves panel width free for switches or a second display.
SkyView HDX 10 with a GTN 650Xi and GMA 245: $22,088
The Dynon SkyView HDX 10-inch display (SV-HDX1100) lists at $4,625 at Aircraft Spruce, and Spruce lists Dynon's ARINC 429 interface module, which it calls the "Interface Module for IFR," at $518. With the same GTN 650Xi and GMA 245, the total is $22,088. Dynon gives the HDX 10 as 3.3 lb and 3.1 in. deep. Spruce notes that SkyView is not TSO'd and is sold for experimental installations.
Which to choose
The three totals are within $1,400 of one another, so price alone won't settle it. The real differences are panel space, the number of boxes to wire and maintain, and what happens when a box fails. With AXIS, the IFR navigator and radio are inside the display, so they share its fate; a stack keeps working when a display doesn't. That gives a builder weighing AXIS for IFR a reason to plan a second display, or a radio that can stand alone.
Sources
- Aircraft Spruce, Garmin AXIS (GDU 116NC price, install and sensor kits). Read October 27, 2026.
- Aircraft Spruce, Dynon SkyView (SV-HDX1100, SV-ARINC-429, certification note). Read October 27, 2026.
- Garmin list prices for the G3X Touch GDU 460, GTN 650Xi and GMA 245, as read for Hangar Flying's Panel Designer on October 27, 2026; Aircraft Spruce, G3X Touch, GTN 650Xi, GMA 245.
- Garmin, G3X/G3X Touch Avionics Installation Manual 190-01115-01 Rev. AZ, Table 2-4; GMA 245/245R Installation Manual 190-01879-11 Rev. 14, Table 1-1; General Aviation Solutions brochure, GTN Xi specifications.
- Dynon, SkyView HDX System Installation Manual, Rev P, Table 6.
- Garmin, Garmin unveils AXIS, July 8, 2026. Dynon, Dynon Previews Integrated IFR GPS Navigation for SkyView HDX, July 7, 2026.
- Hangar Flying, Panel Designer: count of members' designs started January 1 to October 27, 2026.