In article ,
Roger Worden wrote:
Thanks to all the people who responded! ICOM seems to be the near-unanimous
favorite.

One other question: the models people mentioned seem to be COM only, no NAV.
Is there a need for NAV features in soaring? From what I've read so far, it
would seem that it's not used even in cross-country soaring, only in power
flight.


For the price of the added VOR/NAV function, I'd prefer a handheld
GPS (even a very simple one). But if you have the money for
both...

By the way, I use rechargeable AA's in all my portable electronics.
Several times I've had to "steal" batteries from GPS for the
radio or vice versa and it was nice to have compatible batteries.
I also put a little piece of plastic between the ICOM contact and
battery in the back, with a little tab of it sticking out. Then
when I'm ready to turn it on, I pull out the tab. This avoids
it accidentally turning on (volume switch) in my flight bag.