David Megginson wrote in message ...
(Snowbird) writes:
The first point is that you feel very confident in your ability
to continue to aviate, navigate and communicate, while coping
with an emergency or unusual circumstance AND set up a GPS.

No, I don't feel that way at all, but if I do end up in an emergency,
I plan to do my best to aviate, and to worry about navigating and
communicating only when the opportunities present themselves.

OK, David, *listen to yourself*

That's a very correct philosophy.

Now draw the obvious correllary.

You have something in your flight bag which could be useful to
you in the emergency, and you're going to be busy aviating,
and trying to navigate and communicate when the opportunities
present themselves.

With that totally correct set of priorities, that means you're
also going to be setting up your GPS "when the opportunities
present themselves", vs. *having it set up and ready to use*.

Which makes more sense?

I am still a new pilot (220 hours), so I'm very open to learning, but
I'm not doing a good job coming up with use cases where it's a
potential life-or-death issue whether the GPS is already on.

Well, I suppose this would be another fundamental difference
between us.

If I have a potentially useful piece of equipment, I don't need
to persuade myself that "life or death" situations are involved,
to want to be able to use it directly and immediately without
adding workload to an already divided attention which (rightly)
has several higher priorities.

Frankly my goal is to keep my flights boring, make unusual circumstances
as routine as possible, avoiding making them into emergencies or life
or death situations.

1. Vacuum failure -- no immediate, direct benefit from the handheld
GPS.

I totally disagree.

2. Electrical failure -- if I know of VMC anywhere within range (or
above or below), I'll head in that general direction using the
compass or altimeter;

Well here's another I don't get (how does the altimeter help you
head towards VMC? and if it's just your electrical system, why
aren't you using your DG?) but the immediate, direct benefit of a set-up,
ready to go GPS seems pretty obvious. You aren't simply heading
in a general direction, you can be heading towards a specific
goal with specific bearing and distance information to use in your
planning. Now not 10 minutes from now.

3. Smoke on board, goes away when electrical shut down -- see #2.
4. Smoke on board, does not go away when electrical shut down -- the
handheld GPS is useless

Well, you know, we've been there (fortunately in what turned out
to be Case #3), and I can vouch for several things:
1. it was psychologically much easier to reach for the master and
switch it off knowing that we could navigate seamlessly

don't overlook the psychological aspect -- there are several
accidents on record with a negative outcome, where the pilot
chose to keep the master on so he could navigate,
and the outcome might have been different had he the means
to navigate accurately master-off

2. we immediately started planning for Case #4, and the specific
situational awareness provided by the GPS was of great assistance
in deciding which direction we would point and coming up with a
plan, quickly while under pressure.

5. Engine failure -- see #4.

Yes -- and my response to it.

That said, my handheld GPS often is on already

Alright, than what are we arguing about? I thought you were
taking the position that it was just as useful to you in your
flightbag.

I disagree -- but frankly, you seem determined to say it's
no particular advantage to 'set up' vs. 'in bag' in the face of
what seems to me obvious evidence to the contrary, and it's not
a debate I'll continue.

If in practice, you don't in fact leave the GPS in your flight
bag but fly with it set up and turned on, why are you arguing
for a practice you don't yourself follow?

Aye Yi Yi!
Sydney