I'm not flying my Piet yet (nowhere close), but I have, and intend to use, a Garmin
GPSMAP 195 and an Icom IC-A22 NAVCOM. Of course I won't need the GPS unless
I'm flying cross country. Even then I don't NEED it, but it sure is nice
to just fly direct, following the CDI. As for the radio, it is such a small package,
and offers so much added safety that I can't really consider NOT using
it. I also hope to teach my son to fly in the Piet... so he will need to learn
to use the radio, and I'm sure we will appreciate the intercom.
I have a great view of the approach to rwy 17 from my hangar, where I see non-radio
guys cutting off people on final all the time. I'm not trying to include
everyone in that comment. Heck, there may be days that I just want to fly around
the patch without my headset on, but just yesterday I saw one of our breezy
fliers cut off two aircraft (at different times) that were well established
on final. For starters he took the active and departed in front of one, and
later he flew a short pattern and turned final right in front of another that
was already established on final and was flying a proper pattern. I know all
of the people involved and I imagine Mr. Breezy will hear about it. I'm aware
that these things just happen occasionally, but we have students flying at our
field, and I regularly see people stop by that are not from our field (for fuel,
visit, etc.) and they probably don't know (nor do they expect to see) Mr.
Breezy cutting in underneath them. We all need to work on our scan to be safe,
but I also think this particular pilot's vision may improve if he had something
on his ears. :)
Anyhow, I'm not trying to rant as much as I am trying to promote a couple of useful
widgets. Especially the radio. As stated above, the IC-A22 is a NAVCOM,
so I could navigate with it using VOR stations, which is actually pretty fun.
A lot of bang for the buck in a modern day handheld.
--------
Mark - working on wings
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