Just over a week ago I was feeling the onset of panic after our 1992 Commander 114B’s oil pressure gauge failed. This happened during the same flight when one of the airplane’s Garmin G5s shut down unexpectedly—and the heater appeared to be on the blink as well.
Not only do things occasionally go wrong in general aviation, but they go wrong in bunches. While I had braced myself for the sorts of problems that most aircraft owners eventually have to deal with, I was not quite ready to face them so soon after the purchase. I had hoped to have a little more time to enjoy relatively carefree flying with every instrument on the panel working properly as they had during a recent demonstration flight with the former owner.
