Instrument Check Ride - What navigation equipment can I use ?

"Jim Carter" wrote in news:000901c7141a$5c8da380
$8202a8c0@omnibook6100:

It amuses me that so much of what was done 30 years ago, with less
accurate technical toys is today seen as macho and Herculean. Single
nav
radio holds? Full ADF approach? Cross country without a moving map or
GPS? Single-engine, night IFR? There are way too many opinions about
the
lack of safety of these practices by people who have little or no
experience with them.

It's not the equipment that's the weak link in the safety factor MOST of
the time.....

It's the human factor addressing the extra workload and undivided
attention that's the weak link in the safety of single engine, night IFR,
or hard IFR operations.

I have done both hard IFR with and without an IFR certified GPS.
Obviously a successful outcome for both situations, but given my
druthers, GPS direct sure is easier then flying VOR to VOR.

Of course everyone must know their personal and equipment limitations.

And this is where lies the safety of IFR or any type of flying we do.

Equipment failures happen, but more often then not, it's the human error
that bites us in the rear end.

I'm really going to upset the apple cart now when I suggest that
landing
at the nearest airport isn't always the best choice in any situation.
Even with a blown piston or swallowed valve, the engine can often get
you someplace better than the closest airport.

I'd have to respectfully disagree with the above having been through a
partial engine failure.

First, the suddeness of onset catches you off guard.

AVIATING, going through the emergency procedures AND THEN getting the
plane set up for best glide NAVIGATING evaluating whether I can make the
field, getting in touch with ATC COMMUNICATING (I called into 121.50 as I
was not using ATC services),

You do not know what is the problem causing the severe vibration, nor do
you know if the fan will stop in front of you. For me, the engine ate an
exhaust valve, and my oil loss was minimal. After all my trouble
shooting, I had no clue what was happening to my plane.

When things go to crap like it did for me, my first look / see was for a
farm field. Once I evaluated I had enough altitude and power to make it
to my destination (which by the way was the nearest airport) I stuck to
my decision to press on to the airport (16 LONG miles).

This decision was made based on a 200 fpm loss of altitude with what
little power I had, and ALWAYS keeping an off aiport site front and
center of my attention should I lose everything. I was at 3,500 when
things went south with the cylinder.

By the time I had descend down to 3000, I had figured I had 15 minutes
flying time and my GPS had 12 minutes ETE with the field elevation of a
whopping 40 feet.

It always makes more
sense to plan and execute a solution rather than just jumping to
conclusions based on what the least skilled have decided we should do.

Absolutely agree with the above, but when something goes as dramatically
wrong as losing one piston operating under the cowling, nearest is best.

The severe vibration brought on by losing a cylinder can easily snowball
into something else to catastrophically fail, and pressing on past a
perfectly useable landing site is a reckless decision in my opinion.

An autopilot may be on someone's personal list of minimum equipment for
IFR, but that doesn't mean it should be a mandate for all of us.

Agree, since I do not have autopilot and have flown 2 1/2 hours in IMC
with the last hour at night.

Like you said above, it's highly dependent on personal limitations AND
equipment. I have my own plane, so I know what is behind the
maintenance. Even with that knowledge doesn't mean the next flight will
be the demise of my vacuum pump, but with the training I have had, it
shouldn't be that big a deal. Been through one of those during a night
flight and it was a non event. Of course, that was easy compared to IMC,
but it happens.

Allen