(Michael) wrote in message . com...

Yeah, I've heard that song before. Even believed it. Then I had my
AI tumble. At night. In IMC. On the climbout. While being
rerouted. In spite of what everyone told me, it was a complete
non-event. .... Gyro failure is not a big deal if you train properly.

I really don't want to restart that whole thread but FWIW:

One observation from the recent ASF/FAA vacuum failure study
was that pilots who lost only their AI (electric HSI did not
fail) did not lose control of the airplane, while a significant
number of pilots (same aircraft) lost control when they lost
both. There was no correlation to time in type or total time.

This result suggests to me that it might be a mistake to
extrapolate from "lose AI no problem" to "lose gyros no
problem".

On the other hand, an engine failure in a single engine airplane under
the same conditions would have been very, very ugly.

No argument there. But certainly there are a number of pilots
who have found vacuum system failure in night IMC to be fatally
ugly.

There are currently no "real stats" which prove or disprove
the contention that this ugliness is entirely due to improper
training.

Them's the facts,
Sydney