David Megginson wrote in message ...
(Snowbird) writes:
With that totally correct set of priorities, that means you're
also going to be setting up your GPS "when the opportunities
present themselves", vs. *having it set up and ready to use*.

Just out of curiosity, do you fly with your cell phone plugged into
your headset and ready to use

No. It's within reach with the adapter cord plugged in, but there's
no good place to park it, near my headset and I wouldn't bother to
create one. I do use it on the ground before and after flights, which
is why it's close by and set up.

But I don't see nearly the same emergency value (in flight) in a
cell phone that I see in a GPS, sorry. Wouldn't bother me if it
were packed in the back in my purse.

I'd expect that that would be significantly more valuable in an
IMC emergency

I don't see that, and in fact the priorities you correctly list
contradict that view. A GPS helps (well, helps me anyway, YMMV) with
aviating and navigating. A cell phone helps only with communicating.
Communicating with anyone is a way lower priority than aviating
and navigating. Bernoulli not Marconi makes the plane fly, etc etc.

Well here's another I don't get (how does the altimeter help you
head towards VMC?

Airspace is 3D -- sometimes the nearest safe and accessible VMC is
above or below you.

Good point.

If you look back at Google, I said that I thought the statement was
too strident. I don't argue that there are benefits, but I think it's
an exaggeration to say that lack of a fully set-up handheld GPS in a
vacuum or electrical failure would normally be a life-or-death issue

If you look back at Google, you'll see that the "life or death issue"
is YOUR introduction. What I said is that IMO a GPS still in the
flight bag is not of much practical use (useless) in a tight spot.

I stand by that belief, but it's a considerably different statement
than making it a "life or death issue". My cell phone is useless if
it's sitting on the front seat of my car while I'm in my plane, but
it hardly follows that it's a life-or-death issue not to have it.

I also explicitly pointed out that I didn't consider something had to
be a "life or death" matter to have great value in an emergency, or
to be worth setting up ahead of time.

If we go
around telling pilots that *everything* is life-or-death

Then it's a good thing that wasn't what I said. Kindly don't
put words in my mouth.

There are a lot more important things to have
prepared in IMC, including (in approximate order of importance to me):

- more than one flashlight right at hand, with fresh batteries
- a very accurate knowledge where I am all the time

*sigh*

I suspect at this point that I might as well go spit upwind but:

One more time. The GPS is of great value in *giving* you very
accurate knowledge of where you are all the time, especially if
it so happens that you've been getting vectored around, your
groundspeed is varying widely, and you're very properly dividing
your attention between maintaining SA and updating wx/planning an
approach etc. IME, it is also of great value in aviating while
partial panel.

But it only possesses this value if it is *set up*, *on* and
*acquired* when things go south.

Otherwise, it has no immediate value, and will have no value until
you can pry enough attention lose from aviating, navigating, and
communicating to set it up and turn it on.

I call that 'practically useless', YMMV -- though it's rather
odd there's no connection he

- charts and plates already open and folded appropriately

Why is it important to have charts and plates already open and
folded appropriately?

Because if you need them in a hurry, they are *useless* to you
if they are packed away. They have no value until you can spare
the attention to dig them out, open them, and locate the relevant
portion.

Is having a chart folded rather than right-at-hand in a tight spot
a "life or death" situation? Probably not.

Is the chart useful to you in an emergency if it's packed away?
No. It is not. Until you can spare time to set it up, it might
as well be in Cahokia. It is "practically useless".

The set-up handheld GPS is undoubtedly a benefit, but it comes a bit
further down the list

Than a timer, or a flashlight (for daytime???), or a cell phone?

All I can say is I believe your priorities to be seriously mistaken.

But I grasp at this point that nothing I could say will have
persuasive
value to you, so hopefully anyone who cares has taken my point by now.

Over and out,
Sydney