Hmm that's interesting... I like this quote

Now, for roughly the price of a tank of gas, you can enjoy the peace of mind of a versatile hand-held NAV/COM with full ILS capability.

I know gas has gotten expensive but sheez... I put 12 gallons of 91 octane mogas in my plane and that get's most of a weekend of a playing. I think they need to find a new analogy.

AvidFlyer wrote:Hmm that's interesting... I like this quote

Now, for roughly the price of a tank of gas, you can enjoy the peace of mind of a versatile hand-held NAV/COM with full ILS capability.

I know gas has gotten expensive but sheez... I put 12 gallons of 91 octane mogas in my plane and that get's most of a weekend of a playing. I think they need to find a new analogy.

I think their target market for this product is probably closer to the heavy touring set than the light experimental set. When's the last time you shot an ILS in your Kitfox? Pretty easy to rack up the bucks at 15gph of 100LL.

I knew a guy who tells a story about a particular BFR (or maybe IPC...can't remember) where the CFI detuned his nav radio while shooting a practice localizer approach under the hood to simulate nav radio failure.

"Whatcha gonna do now?" said the CFI.

This guy happened to be pretty tuned up on instruments, so with steel nerve he turned around, grabbed his Icom handheld nav/com, tuned in the localizer and continued the approach watching the little CDI on the radio.

Sorry Zane my sense of humor is a little dry today. I dont even have a turn coordinator in my airplane. Can you imagine flying an ILS in hard IMC with a dark panel and having the Yoke in one hand, and that radio in the other....yehaw!

AvidFlyer wrote:Sorry Zane my sense of humor is a little dry today. I dont even have a turn coordinator in my airplane. Can you imagine flying an ILS in hard IMC with a dark panel and having the Yoke in one hand, and that radio in the other....yehaw!

We need the dry humor smiley...

Ummmm, you guys lost me at "radio"....What's a radio?
WW

1SeventyZ wrote:.....I knew a guy who tells a story about a particular BFR (or maybe IPC...can't remember) where the CFI detuned his nav radio while shooting a practice localizer approach under the hood to simulate nav radio failure. "Whatcha gonna do now?" said the CFI. This guy happened to be pretty tuned up on instruments, so with steel nerve he turned around, grabbed his Icom handheld nav/com, tuned in the localizer and continued the approach watching the little CDI on the radio.

If I was the CFI, I would have had a good talk with the pilot about decision-making skills, if they were trying to simulate a real-life IFR scenario. In a non-emergency situation, should you really stake your life on an uncertified handheld that's been rattling around in a flight bag for 10 years? Speaking as a VFR pilot, seems like a better real-life decision woulda been to climb out & call ATC. As a "hey watch this" maneuver, though, that was a pretty cool finish to the approach.
Flying an ILS approach with the handheld, on the other hand, might be a good drill for a gotta-land-right-now (low fuel?) emergency coupled with a simulated VFR-into-IMC scenario.

I was about to order this radio, but then I thought about if and when I'm going to use it. The result was 'never'. Even in an emergency I would never ever descent through the clouds, shooting an ILS approach, just relying on a handheld radio. Not even to speak of the hassle of fiddling around with it, holding it in one hand while flying the plane with the other.
For these reasons I decided to simply order a standard handheld radio. This in combination with my battery powered aviation GPS will be my backup in case everything goes dark.

Just my 2 cents...

If I had to buy a new handheld today, it would be the Icom A6. My A23 has been going strong for years, but I've only used the nav feature as a novelty.

Oliver wrote:Even in an emergency I would never ever descent through the clouds, shooting an ILS approach, just relying on a handheld radio.

You guys don't know what fun you're missing!!!

Gump