Originally Posted by
david viewing
My point is that all this steam technology has far higher failure rates, and a much greater ability to produce perplexing data, than modern GPS equipment. Actually I'm in favour of mandating the affixing of velcro to the front of the traditional instruments in UK GA aircraft and sticking an iPad (running Skydemon at this moment in time) there instead.
I haven't used Skydemon in a plane, but I would expect that it isn't going to give you airspeed, and altitude wont be at the correct pressure setting (which will matter depending on whether the airspace boundaries are based on flight level or QNH). It also wont give you attitude / turn / slip or any engine or system monitoring.
Covering over instruments with a portable GPS sounds to me a bit like a suicide attempt if you happen to become inadvertently IMC.
Use each for what its designed to do!
To say that modern GPS equipment has lower failure rates means that you firstly need to define "modern" and whether you mean panel mounted or portable GPS.
Is out of date data a fail? Is the signal being Jammed / intentionally manipulated a fail? Is running out of battery a fail when the power supply isn't working / available / plugged in or they weren't charged? Is losing signal for several minutes for some unknown reason (as has been reported by others on here) a fail? Do you include the GPS failing when bright sunlight hits it directly and it becomes unreadable a fail? What about when it falls off due to a poor mount? What about crashes due to the cheap Chinese import via eBay that you are using? I understand from on here that some devices crash if you fly over the North Pole - is that a fail or just something the programmers didn't think about and wasn't tested?
Anecdotally there is loads of evidence of portable and panel mounted units failing for lots of reasons but I've never heard any statistics. Strangely enough I suspect that manufacturers don't broadcast them (and if they are portable, they wouldn't be reported anyway).
Can you substantiate your statement?
Not sure how relevant this is to the rest of the debate anyway...