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. ......
Let me give you my stats, which speak for themselves. From memory of these extremely rare events....
2004 - all three GPSs lost for ~1-3 mins, when flying down the middle of the Adriatic at ~1000ft. Solution: continue the current heading.
2006 - KLN94 lost its constellation data (apparently) at startup at Padova (Italy) and did not recover until I was halfway across the Alps, so say 30 mins. Other units were fine. Solution: none was required but anyway I asked ATC for a VOR route, which lifted the MEA from FL140 to FL160, so no issue.
Total airborne time on this aircraft is ~1100hrs over 10 years.
Anecdotally there is loads of evidence of portable and panel mounted units failing for lots of reasons but I've never heard any statistics
That is true (about the anecdotal reports) but it seems that a lot of people are
- using crappy old units (like MJ above, though his one was hardly cheap, and he gets away with it because it is AOC flying on an IFR clearance so CAS doesn't matter, and there is little terrain above the N Sea)
- using handhelds with integral aerials in metal cockpits, resulting in marginal reception (I can show you anytime how crap the GPS in my Ipad2 is
when flying; only an external XGPS150 bluetooth unit makes it work properly)
- using GPSs which may be modern but they have never opened the user manual (which is not suprising since the unit pretty well works straight out of the box as a moving map with obvious map-zoom controls) and one day they decide to learn the other functionality when up in the air
A GPS is a fantastic tool for the job. It has totally revolutionised navigation, to the extent that one can go all
over the place and have totally uneventful flights, whereas previously one would be working one's bollox off starting/stopping/winding up the stopwatch and looking for terrain features to match those expected at around the waypoint time - all while trying to fly an accurate heading which is itself variously fictional because your wind corrected plog is based on forecast wind, and anyway the whole edifice hangs on selecting waypoints cunningly for a lack of ambiguity, which is sometimes trivial and sometimes not...
I have a workshop at home, with a 3 axis turret mill, with a DRO and ball guides (0.005mm) on all 3 axes. I want to make something of a funny shape. If I worked for the AAIB, seemingly, I would file it out by hand
I have no issue with somebody pretending to be like their grandfather. It's easy. Go to your pilot shop, buy a £500 leather jacket, the leather cap, goggles, even a jump suit. Run your Jag over your map a few times so it looks well creased (and over the jacket too). Read the Flypast magazine. I have absolutely no issue with that. Traditional aviation is absolutely fine. Like plane spotters, it has its place. WW2 pilots even sometimes managed to find Berlin from the UK (unsuprisingly most couldn't though; only the really good ones could so they got them to fly ahead). But don't tell me it is the best way to navigate to places in which you don't know the sheep by their first names, because it isn't. It's a crap error-prone high-workload way to do it, and the "establishment position" is without doubt largely responsible for why most new PPL holders are totally sh*t scared of flying further than down the coast, and chuck away the £10k they paid for that piece of paper without ever really using it.
There was an RAF study carried out on fast jet pilots.
When I applied to the RAF (don't laugh; they wouldn't have me because of my presumed KGB connections; in fact even an engineering apprenticeship was totally out and I reckon they sent my application straight to MI6 without even answering it) in 1973, they has literally
100 applicants for every flying position. They can pick and choose. I am not suprised their jet pilots are very good.
But I also think the RAF is jolly lucky WW3 never broke out, because for decades the Russians only needed to invade in IMC and have some improvised means of radio nav
