"Sydney Hoeltzli" wrote in message
...

There seem to be a number of instances where the pilot was aware
of the problem -- had described it to ATC and possibly requested
some form of assistance -- had been flying the plane for some time

No doubt there will always be crashes we cannot avoid. I am sure there are
people with tip tanks who run out of fuel; that does not mean tip tanks fail
to increase an airplane's range.

The fact is that any sim instructor will tell you many pilots have a
difficult time identifying gradual loss of the vacuum system and that
redundant gyro equipment helps to identify this failure earlier.

--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com