There you are, droning along in the clag toward your destination. You still have over an hour before your ETA and the frequency isn’t all that busy, so you’ve eased the seat back a bit to stretch your legs while George flies. In a few minutes, you’ll get the ATIS and load the expected approach, then brief yourself on the letdown and vectors to final. While you’re chatting with the passengers, you hear a faint beep and sense a wing has dropped a bit.
You look back at your instrument panel and the primary flight display panel is showing several red X’s where flight information used to be, including attitude, heading and airspeed. Before you reach for the yoke, a glance at the backup “steam” gauges shows you’ve entered a slight descent and you’re in that slight bank. The moving map still works, and you can navigate and communicate, but you have to start flying partial-panel on the backup instruments. Congratulations; you’re experiencing an IFR emergency.
