"Teacherjh" wrote in message
...
Looks like dials & needles are finally going the way of the dinosaur.

Flying along, go to flip the pitot heat on but hit a bump (and thus the
master). Oops. Master back on.

Steam gauges: Instantly back on.

GPS: self test..... display database date disclaimer (wait for pilot to
press
OK)... ask "set full fuel?".... wait for pilot to key in the actual
amount of
fuel left (or more likely, just hit ENTER)... acquiring satellites....
acquiring satellites.... acquiring satellites.... Ok, moving map is on.
Flight plan is gone (did you save it to a memory location or just use the
default).... pilot hits FPL button, changes to list page, hits cursor
button,
scrolls through the existing flight plan list looking for the one he was
flying... hit enter. "activate flight plan?".... hit ENTER.

This is a gross exaggeration. The GPS will be up and running in just a few
seconds. It will not lose any information. The current flight plan is always
flight plan 0.

Meanwhile, the loss of radios, etc., is no worse than it would be if you
shut off the master in any other airplane.

Besides, the GPS replaces no steam gauges, unless you want to call your old
navigation radios steam gauges. I know some old nav/comms that forget their
settings when they lose power.

The flight panel does have steam gauge equivalents, but these come up as
fast as real steam gauges. Plus, all the flight control instruments have
backups.