Originally Posted by
PiperCameron
To answer that, you'd really need to know what avionics was fitted to the aircraft, but it'd be a brave charter pilot who took on a job in a Day-VFR only aircraft.
Oh, PLEEZE! Not that old furphy again!!!! The age of the aircraft has absolutely nothing to do with safety nor it's comfort level, nor it's ability to carry out the mission! In fact many older aircraft are actually safer than the newer versions, maintenance and owner $$ spend depending. Ask any warbird owner.
It’s not a “furphy.”
If it were a Cirrus you’d press the heading hold, button apply full power and climb to a pre-set altitude and it would be all over (for the better) in a matter of minutes and you wouldn’t even be talking about it the next day. Your passengers would be raving about how good this fancy Cirrus was. If the engine had failed in IMC, you would have pulled the CAPS and be talking about it over beers at the local pub after your rescue.
The situational awareness when looking at a glass cockpit with Avidyne’s or G1000’s is chalk versus cheese, especially with synthetic vision. I’ll bet a significant amount of cash that many VFR pilots are using their well equipped aircraft to transit IFR conditions or punch through clouds on AP on a regular basis and they are doing it very safely, with ADSB in and out. It doesn’t make it right, but it happens.
I know someone who flew to King Island, lost his nerve as it got too cloudy and heavy rain, pressed a few buttons and the aircraft flew him towards home and back to safety. He left it a bit late to turn around and would have been a statistic in a 172.
I also know someone years ago who flew a Cirrus to a remote island with adequate margin for last light. He got there and found that it had gotten too windy and he couldn’t safely land. He gave it 5 attempts, pressed a couple of buttons and the aircraft flew him back to the mainland without issue, except that he had to fly around a thunderstorm in complete darkness across Bass Strait. With his VFR skills in anything but a Cirrus he would have been in serious trouble. Was it a bad judgment call to head there? No, not at the time, but by being in a modern aircraft, he gave himself so many more options.