Originally Posted by
KRviator
In part, that's why I've done the practice with my system, to (hopefully) convince me to make that call early in the piece, because I know what I have and what it can do to keep me alive. I often wonder about why many pilots appear fearful of admitting they've made this error - ATC have checklists specifically for VFR-into-IMC and will always go above and beyond to get you home in one piece if you tell 'em!
True that, KR. I suspect having expensive passengers on board (with family generally being the most expensive) only adds to the fear.. and the resulting delay.
An admission from me: I've trained on both glass and steam and kinda prefer steam... Why? Because it doesn't scream at me when something breaks. I know that already, because when it happens my front seat pax is already screaming at me! Aviate, first - everything else second. The pax I can silence, but have you ever tried to silence the alarm on your EFIS in the middle of an emergency? You haven't really done the practice with your system until you've incorporated the sound of the alarm going off - multiple times - each time you silence it. After all, it's not going to go off unless it's an emergency.
Stay safe up there!
Edit to add: Alternator Failure is a good one to use for alarm practice.
As a tiny aside, I discovered during a long VFR nav a while back with one of my instructors on board and no cloud to worry about, that the '30 minute minimum' ship's battery duration indicated in the POH, whilst great in the USA, may not be all that helpful down under where airports can be quite a distance away. We were an hour out from YMMB when I had an alternator failure for real. After silencing the initial alarm, and the subsequent 'low bus volts' one, over the next 1/2 hour or so we lost the PFD, then MFD, then radios in the YMMB circuit and finally the transponder after touchdown. The standby instruments and green light from the tower all worked just fine and was good practice ...but trying to work out how to shut the bloody alarm off on the Avidyne was harder than you'd think!