I liked their idea of finding an airliner and following it. That would work well through a thick layer of cloud.
Two years ago, a guy here rented a 172RG in good weather conditions, didn't notice the generator was not working, drained the battery and lost all instruments (GNS430 doesn't have a battery backup). He didn't have a second radio and probably paniced which got him on the slippery slope of bad decision making. He didn't dare to go back to the controlled airport he came from (no radio) and picked the shortest airfield he could find. On the 172RG, both flaps and landing gear are electric and for whatever reason he did not perform the manual gear extension procedure so touched down, gear didn't hold, he tried to go around but didn't manage and crashed into a hill. Only small injuries but the aircraft was finished. All because of very bad decision making.
Being prepared for the not so unlikely case of an electrical failure is very important. Here's what I came up with:
- have an engine monitor that monitors voltage and shows an alarm in case the generator quits
- have a plan on how to do load shedding to get most out of your battery
- always carry a charged ICOM with extra batteries and an external antenna installed in the aircraft
- have a battery powered GPS on board
- practice no flaps landings often because in a Cessna you won't have flaps without electrical power
- practice GCA approaches every now and then with the airforce bases as that is the safest instrument approach that works with just an ICOM
- store ATC phone numbers on your mobile phone