The Garmin GNS-430 is a common GPS unit for General Aviation aircraft. Once upon a time it was cutting edge. Now it’s no longer manufactured, but there is a large installed base and most training programs will involve such a unit. As a student pilot, or even an experienced one trying to get the most use out of it, the simulator Garmin provides for download here is very useful. The best time to familiarize yourself with it is on the ground in the safety of your home, not in the cockpit.
The simulator (technically called the “Garmin 400 Series Trainer”, supporting GPS 400, GNC 420, GNS 430 model emulation, with or without Terrain warning) only runs on Windows, but thanks to Wine , it’s possible to run it on Linux (in my case Fedora 23 x86_64) without the overhead and complexity of a VM. There are a few quirks, but it’s usable. Also note that some flight simulators such as X-Plane 10 Global Flight Simulator (PC & MAC)
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