Originally Posted by
riverrock83
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.
A very important comment.
I suspect a lot of the 'Pro' camp have a view that a GPS is
- TSOed
- Panel Mounted
- Powered from the main aircraft power system
- Connected to an external antenna
- Updated monthly with commercially provided data
- Has a moving map display of airspace
and a lot of the 'Con' camp have a view that a GPS is
- Handheld
- Battery Powered
- Internal antenna only
- Has no/old/limited navigation database
- A general purpose unit
- May be interfaced to shareware moving map programs
Ones view of reliability and impact on situational awareness would be substantially different depending on which piece of equipment one had in mind when someone says GPS.
Re Mad Jocks picture, there have been some very substantial errors made (at least one with c. 100 fatalities) due to the lack of real situational awareness using devices as pictured. It is very easy to mis-key an identifier and navigate precisely to the wrong point (through some terrain for example)