How do you Back Up Your Non Panel GPS?

What do you use as back up methods in case your non panel mounted GPS fails?

  • A folded chart on top of the panel in case I need it.

    Votes: 6 13.6%

  • A chart, marked with route and other information unfolded and handy.

    Votes: 8 18.2%

  • Number 2, plus VOR frequencies and radials of interest for the route written down for easy access.

    Votes: 9 20.5%

  • A back up GPS unit.

    Votes: 8 18.2%

  • GPS units never break and batteries don't get low so why worry?

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I don't need no stinking GPS!

    Votes: 13 29.5%
  • Total voters
    44
MBDiagMan

MBDiagMan

Final Approach
Joined
May 8, 2011
Messages
5,233
Location
Mount Pleasant,Texas
Display Name
Doc
Home Airfield
KOSA Mount Pleasant, Texa
How do you back up your portable GPS?

Oh geez! I just noticed that I put this in Pilot Training! I meant to put it in Flight Following. Sorry 'bout that.

I just thought it might be an interesting topic.
 
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Doc I have a little panel mount GPS in each plane but I always have the course marked and ref info available to watch along the way for long cross countries. It's back up and it's more interesting on a long flight... That and sometimes I have music to listen to.
However, if I'm flying around here to the usual places including midland/Odessa I just go there because it's my neighborhood.
 
If it's west of the Continental Divide, and a clear day, I don't need a GPS or chart.

All one has to do is spend four decades flying for a living!
 
Sac Arrow said:
My telephone has a GPS on it.
Click to expand...

"I cant load foreflight on this thing! WTF!"

cr64bk.jpg
 
Primary: GNS 530w plus #2 nav/com
1st backup: Garmin 496
2nd backup: IPad
3rd backup: Iphone
4th backujp: Chart on lap or in center console
5th backup: Compass, map binoculars and looking out window.
Final backup: Prayer.
 
Gotta use that 80 dollar FAA certified clock in the panel for something! ;)
 
A non panel GPS IS a backup.... I still carry charts and a highway atlas for the most part, just climbing and seeing where I am and knowing the highways of the US keeps me from spacial displacement.

My back up though? "Approach, 69SA, unfamiliar, could I get a vector please?"
 
As henning said its easy to get a vector. I feel this is underutilized by most private pilots.

I put don't need no stinking GPS cause lately my flying has been instrument training in a /U airplane. If my nav radios failed I would ask for a vector then plug the bad elf into the ipad :)
 
Henning said:
A non panel GPS IS a backup.... I still carry charts and a highway atlas for the most part, just climbing and seeing where I am and knowing the highways of the US keeps me from spacial displacement.

My back up though? "Approach, 69SA, unfamiliar, could I get a vector please?"
Click to expand...


This reminds me of something.

I recently read Charles Lindberghs 500 plus paged Pulitzer Prize Winner about his Paris flight. In the twenties, with no radio and no highway system his favorite charts were railroad maps.

Your method sounds like an upgraded version given the number of highways builts since the 1920's.:D

I fly by roadmap, well sort of, I don't literally have a road map with me, but my flying thus far has been over areas where I know the roads cold.
 
dell30rb said:
As henning said its easy to get a vector. I feel this is underutilized by most private pilots.

I put don't need no stinking GPS cause lately my flying has been instrument training in a /U airplane. If my nav radios failed I would ask for a vector then plug the bad elf into the ipad :)
Click to expand...


I also am about to begin my instrument training, also in a /U. I suppose I'll be flying VOR to VOR in the future.
 
MBDiagMan said:
I also am about to begin my instrument training, also in a /U. I suppose I'll be flying VOR to VOR in the future.
Click to expand...

Yep, VORs, Vectors, even DST IFR if your instructor is Satan like mine was. Did my IR in a 172 with a single Kx 170B and an ADF same as many before me. You'll do fine as well, it's just more work, more distance and more thinking. It's great for doing the rating, sucks for real world IMC.
 
JOhnH said:
Primary: GNS 530w plus #2 nav/com
1st backup: Garmin 496
2nd backup: IPad
3rd backup: Iphone
4th backujp: Chart on lap or in center console
5th backup: Compass, map binoculars and looking out window.
Final backup: Prayer.
Click to expand...
That's about it in my airplanes, except those big clear plexiglass things all around the cabin are the primary. And prayer is much higher on the list. :)

The 172 has a KLN90B in the panel (not IFR certified), but its database hasn't been updated since the Clinton Administration. I usually only turn it on to keep passengers entertained.
 
Pilawt said:
That's about it in my airplanes, except those big clear plexiglass things all around the cabin are the primary. And prayer is much higher on the list. :)

The 172 has a KLN90B in the panel (not IFR certified), but its database hasn't been updated since the Clinton Administration. I usually only turn it on to keep passengers entertained.
Click to expand...

Mine isn't a panel mount to start with, but it's a fixed mount Garmin 696. I must like current data bases, because it had them. I used XM satelitte weather because it allows for advanced decision making, for weather that's hundreds of miles in the distance. The topography data base is excellent for altitude decisions in regards to wind and turbulence, let alone a moonless night. The GPS is also tied to a fuel monitor ,auto-pilot, and radio pre-sets . Backup is another GPS, along with current charts, and a handheld nav/comm. All of my flying is in mountainous regions. I have not lost a GPS signal since 1994. My plane and GPS is spoken as past tense, since it was wrecked last year.
 
JOhnH said:
Primary: GNS 530w plus #2 nav/com
1st backup: Garmin 496
2nd backup: IPad
3rd backup: Iphone
4th backujp: Chart on lap or in center console
5th backup: Compass, map binoculars and looking out window.
Final backup: Prayer.
Click to expand...

swap 496 with 396 and thats mine too
 
MBDiagMan said:
This reminds me of something.

I recently read Charles Lindberghs 500 plus paged Pulitzer Prize Winner about his Paris flight. In the twenties, with no radio and no highway system his favorite charts were railroad maps.
Click to expand...
I'll bet that Charles didn't have to contend with very many TFRs, MOAs, Restricted areas, Class B & C areas, or a lot of traffic over the ocean.:D
 
gismo said:
I'll bet that Charles didn't have to contend with very many TFRs, MOAs, Restricted areas, Class B & C areas, or a lot of traffic over the ocean.:D
Click to expand...


Yeah, he never even had a pilots license until a few days before he went across the Atlantic. Not a bad feat for a newly minted pilot.:D
 
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