Re: Microair and others

[SHEFLY@aol.com]

'Thanks for your voice on Dead Reckoning. It is very accurate and, in my
opionion is as essential in the cockpit today as it every has been. Just
following a line on a GPS can get you into trouble, even if it doesn't quit. I make
it a policy that unless I am going on a short trip in which I am very familiar
with the area, to always follow with a map and my eyes. This just paid off
for me about 2 weeks ago. We were flying a 1947 Republic Seabee (our other love
besides the Fairchild) back from Lake Tenkiller in OK. There was a sudden
loud noise and knocking and of course the noise of your heart beating in your
ears. Not sure which is less reliable my good old l45 Warner or the Franklin in
the Bee. Anyway, we were still making power but didn't know for how long and
we were not holding altitute. The map which we were following gave us
information we needed other simple the nearest did on the GPS. It let me know if we
had terrance clearance, if water was a closer choice and it made the
experience much better. We did make it to the airport (in fact had to use some
flaps) so we had a little glide left. All turned out okay even though we did spend
an extra day on the road.
To me there is just something reassuring and actually fun in following along
on the map and looking outside to confirm. When we took the Fairchild to OSH
two years ago, we lost GPS reception on our hand held, again we were following
the map and it was a non-event. Our l935 Fairchild 24W C8C has no electrical
system and we managed to fly in 26 hours to and from OSH and were never lost.

Sharon Johnson


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