12 Changes You Need to Know About the 2025 Kodiak 100+900
Around March and April of 2025, the manufacturer cut in a model year change block — meaning 2025 Kodiak 100 Series 3s and 2025 Kodiak 900s are coming off the line with some meaningful differences from their 2023 and 2024 counterparts. Twelve upgrades in total. Here's what changed, what it means for you, and where we have opinions.
1. GDL60 — Wireless Connectivity
This is the big one. The GDL60 replaces the Flight Stream 510 and brings LTE/cellular connectivity to the Kodiak for the first time. In practical terms, that means you can push database updates to the aircraft remotely from the hangar — or from your couch — via iPad. It also opens the door for future Garmin Pilot app integration, giving you the ability to check fuel load, database status, aircraft time, and more before you ever leave the house.
This technology has been available on other platforms for a couple of years. It's a welcome arrival on the Kodiak 100 and 900.
2. New Audio Panel Interface
Anyone who's spent time in the G1000-equipped Kodiak knows the pain here. Without a keypad controller or FMS touchscreen like the G3000 offers, managing audio volumes for comms, passengers, and intercom has always been more complicated than it should be. The 2025 update introduces a full audio panel interface on the MFD — a visual layout that makes it easy to see and adjust every volume setting based on seating configuration. It's something operators have been asking for a long time. It's finally here.
3. V-NAV Guidance Update
This is a G1000 software update that improves the vertical navigation guidance system, particularly in challenging terrain environments. You get a bit more flexibility in how V-NAV is configured, which matters when you're flying in and out of mountainous or complex terrain — exactly the kind of flying a lot of Kodiak operators do.
4. Enhanced Avionics for Special Missions
This update expands avionics capability for government and special missions operators, including enhanced stealth mode functions within the G1000. We're intentionally keeping the details high-level here — if you're in that world and need specifics, reach out to us directly and we can go deeper.
5. Enhanced Data Logging and Exceedance Monitoring
The onboard data logging system now surfaces more information visually on the MFD. You can see data logs and exceedances directly on screen — no need to dig through raw files. For aircraft managers and owners alike, this is a real improvement in understanding how the airplane has been operated. It pairs naturally with the GDL60's remote monitoring capabilities and integrates well with third-party maintenance trend monitoring services.
6. Synthetic Vision Upgrade
The synthetic vision system on both PFD1 and PFD2 has received a significant update. The standout improvements are better taxiway visualization on the ground and context-aware rendering in flight — the system now distinguishes between ground operations, low-altitude flight, and high-altitude cruise, and adjusts the synthetic terrain display accordingly. It's a meaningful enhancement to situational awareness across the whole flight envelope.
7. GWX75 → GWX8000 Weather Radar
The onboard weather radar has been upgraded from the GWX75 to the GWX8000. Hardware is reportedly the same, but the software has been substantially rewritten, bringing significantly more capability to the radar display. If your Kodiak is equipped with the weather radar option, this is a real-world improvement in what you can see and interpret in the cockpit.
8. New Standby Instrument — The Mid-Continent 302 SAM
This one is a mixed bag. The old L3 standby instrument has been replaced by the Mid-Continent 302 SAM — a two-screen standby unit with its own integrated magnetometer. That means the 2025 Kodiak now has three independent magnetometers onboard, and the old whiskey compass that lived on the glareshield between the pilot seats is gone.
We like the Mid-Continent instrument itself. The trade-off is that installing it required eliminating the pilot-side glovebox, which was genuinely useful cockpit storage. So while the standby instrument is an upgrade, we're still a little cold on losing that storage space.
9. Optional Radar Altimeter — Garmin GRA55
For the first time, there's a factory option for a radar altimeter on the Kodiak 100 and 900. The GRA55 displays altitude above terrain directly on the PFD alongside the barometric altitude, giving you an at-a-glance reference that's especially valuable in low-altitude operations. This option also satisfies radar altimeter requirements for commercial operations in certain international markets, opening up more deployment opportunities for fleet and charter operators.
10. Optional Diversity Transponder — GTX 345D
The GTX 345D adds both a top and bottom antenna to the transponder system, meeting requirements for new aircraft builds in Canada and various overseas markets. If you're exporting a 2025 Kodiak or operating internationally, this option is likely not optional at all — it's what gets you compliant with Transport Canada and other regulatory bodies.
11. Region-Aware Airport Scrolling
A smaller quality-of-life update, but one that adds up over time. The G1000 now knows your geographic location and filters airport options to your region when scrolling with the knobs. No more wading through hundreds of irrelevant airports because you're in the US but the system is surfacing international fields — or vice versa. Faster, cleaner, less frustrating.
12. Full Whelen LED Exterior Lighting Package
We saved one of the best for last. Every Kodiak up to this point has had some mix of incandescent or HID lighting in the exterior suite. The 2025 models go 100% LED across the board — landing lights, pulse/taxi lights, nav lights, strobes, and beacon. All Whelen. All LED.
They're brighter, they'll last longer, and they're more efficient. Given that the lighting system was the subject of our last video, the timing on this one feels appropriate. It's a clean, overdue upgrade that brings the Kodiak's exterior lighting fully into the modern era.
The Bottom Line
Twelve updates, and most of them are genuinely meaningful improvements — particularly the GDL60, the audio panel interface, the radar altimeter option, and the LED lighting package. The standby instrument swap is the one place where we have reservations, not about the instrument itself, but about the loss of that pilot-side storage.
If you're evaluating a 2025 Kodiak against an older model, or if you're trying to understand exactly when specific changes were cut into the production line, that's exactly the kind of detail our acquisition team lives in. Reach out to us here — we'd be glad to help you work through it.
— Mark Brown, 11 Aviation