I was out recently with a friend/neighbor/CFI, brushing the rust off some basic skills. After 20 or so minutes of slow flight, stalls, steep turns and some erratic, uncoordinated maneuvers purporting to be Lazy 8s, we rolled straight and level for a few minutes to chat and move away from a cloud deck.
The author experienced a failure of his vacuum-powered artificial horizon, underscoring the critical need for reliable backup flight instrumentation.
For IFR flight safety and dispatch reliability, installed backup instruments are essential, ideally utilizing different power sources (e.g., electrical backup for a vacuum-powered primary system).
While smartphone/tablet apps can offer basic attitude information, dedicated installed backup instruments are highly recommended for their immediate readiness and legality as primary flight instruments in case of main system failure.
I was out recently with a friend/neighbor/CFI, brushing the rust off some basic skills. After 20 or so minutes of slow flight, stalls, steep turns and some erratic, uncoordinated maneuvers purporting to be Lazy 8s, we rolled straight and level for a few minutes to chat and move away from a cloud deck.
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