Thanks for all the helpful comments so far. In thinking about what you
all have said, with my current setup (and yes I am an owner), I would
realistically have a DG with either a vacuum pump failure or AI
failure. In the case of a vacuum pump failure, I could still get
current ground track from the 430. And, obviously with the AI failure
alone, I would still have the DG.

While I don't do a lot of flying in actual IMC, I do enough that I'm
willling to spend some extra money to hopefully prevent a major problem
in the event of vacuum pump failure. I don't know about the rest of
you, but if I encounter a situation where I end up flying partial
panel, I plan to get in VMC ASAP, or if I can't do that, land.

I haven't yet flown with any of the Garmin handhelds, but my guess (and
I could certainly be off on this) is that would be harder to use the
panel page on the handheld as a backup versus having a backup electric
AI and thus the traditional instrument panel gauges and layout that I
trained on. The electric AI from Sporty's also has the ball
inclinometer built into it and can replace the turn coordinator.

So, if anyone else wants to weigh in on best bang for the buck backup,
here again are the options in contention:

1. Engine driven backup vacuum (such as Precise Flight)
2. Electric AI
3. Garmin 396/496
4. $2 failed-instrument covers (I need these anyway, but I had to
throw this in as an option).

Thanks again.

Kelly