Common instruments on small aircraft

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Worried about what, exactly?

A lack of redundancy. Also, to determine your position exactly with
navaids, you either need two of them or some sort of distance
information, e.g., 1 VOR+DME, or 2 VORs.

Again, a lack of training has left you without some very basic knowledge.
You can toggle between your primary and backup frequency even on 1 VOR to
pinpoint your position with good accuracy. You already have the skill, you
just don't understand how to apply them because you have not had proper
training.

Yes, I know that you might be flying routinely in VMC and might be
able to just look out the window, but I like to have reliable backup
for my own, highly subjective determinations of where I am.

Unfortunately, the perspective in a Sim does not compare to the actual
perspective in a real airplane, and so I understand your concern. In a real
plane, this is not a major issue.

I tried flying from Phoenix to KSAN not long ago by following the
interstates, but I didn't realize until I saw Palm Springs below that
I was following the wrong interstate. Granted, this was simulation,
and you might say that real life provides a clearer picture on the
ground than simulation, but I think all interstates look very similar,
and I might well make the same mistake in real life (essentially just
one of following I-10 instead of whatever leads to San Diego).

Yes, but in real life, there are many more cues than just the road. You can
use your sectional to determine the location of towers, bridges, cities,
tracks, and other similar milestones so that you are not dependent on a
single point of failure.

Worried about what, exactly?

Failure of insufficiently tested all-in-one avionics. It's best to
minmize the number of tools or instruments that have
interdependencies.

I believe the G1000 panel has steam-guage backups of the minimum required
equipment.

I have to say, they are nice. I enjoy the club planes very much. Great
planes with a great pricetag.

How do they afford it? Somebody must have paid for all that gear up
front at some point. Who owns the aircraft?

The club members split the costs. The club has grown through several planes
over many years, and I have not been a member since the beginning, so I
don't know the exact history of how the first planes were purchased.
However, I imagine it started off with some number of people who decided to
start a flight club, purchased a plane or two using a mortgage, and split
the costs of the mortgage, tiedown, maintenance, upgrades, etc. I doubt
very much than anyone other than a bank "paid for all that gear up front".