Steam (Gauge) Power
Your last editorial really resonated with me (“Black Ops for Black Boxes,” April 2012 IFR). I have been flying on and off for over 50 years, and almost always behind round gauges; sometimes not very many of them.
When I bought my new Commander 114TC in 1999, I opted for what was then pretty much state of the art. Lots of conventional, round gauges plus two swanky, new, GNS 430s. Thirteen years on, the configuration is pretty much unchanged, except for an electric backup AI and the addition of WX weather to the Garmins. I do worry a bit about gyro failure, but I have dual vacuum pumps and know that I can hand fly well enough using the backup and the Garmins. I’ve thought about adding WAAS and also traffic info, but as I almost always fly IFR and into fields with at least one ILS, I’ve yet to bite those bullets.
