Dan Luke wrote:

I would have been unable to complete two recent Angel Flights without an
IFR GPS. I don't know how it is in the Northeast, but down here
(Alabama), I'd be crippled without it. Mine's not a moving map model,
but that's not much of a factor in its utility since I have a moving map
portable on the yoke.

What about the flights/GPS made the two flights possible? Airports with
nothing but GPS approaches?

I guess I'm spoiled. I *love* flying with an IFR GPS, and it was a part of
my IFR training. But my "home" airport has a localizer approach, so the
extra couple of hundred feet of a GPS approach can seem very limiting.
Hell, I even get annoyed with the extra couple of hundred feet I've lost by
not having a glideslope.

Last week, for example, I canceled a "for fun" flight because the ceilings
were too low for the GPS approach at the airport to which I'd have to
return. Had it been at my home airport (and had they not closed the runway
with the localizer for maintenance), I'd have gone and had some nice actual
time.

[Of course, we all expect the ceiling to go up as soon as the cancel
decision is made. This time, it went down. Nice feeling, in a weird way.]

I think if I'd the choice, I'd put something other than the IFR GPS at the
top of my list. It would probably be either the AI backup or a weather
device. I'd prefer something more "strategic" than a strikefinder, though.
That still permits...surprises of an unfortunate sort.

But I have to admit: most of my flights are for fun of one sort or another.
So I can usually choose a destination with the type of approach I want. I
very rarely "need" to be flying anywhere. If I were doing something (ie.
Angel Flights) which dictated airports, an IFR GPS might be a bigger deal.

- Andrew