Today we have all these fancy gadgets but most of the time we still depend
on the old wet compass for heading data. Every figured what you would do if
the wet compass goes TA while you are in the soup and all you have is a
manually set DG? Been there.


It's not in the soup, but I've been out in the wild boonies of the Razorbacks
in western Arkansas, second week of December, single seat turbine ag plane, no
heat, no defrost, no windscreen wiper, nothing. I had a five hundred foot
ceiling and one mile visibility, temp. 33 degrees in misting rain. That had me
on my toes, from cold as much as anything, but I wasn't overly worried yet.
Then I started picking up ice. Not bad (as if it could ever be *good*), but my
spidey sense was definitely starting to tingle. I'd go through a thermocline
and pick some up, then warmer air and it would immediately melt. Garmin 195
loses sat lock, pull out the back up Garmin Pilot III, no joy, last resort,
pull out the Palm Pilot with the Delorme GPS which won't work either. No
attitude instruments of any type, no DG, no VOR, no radios but an Icom A-22
with a rubber duckie antenna and the wet compass won't move but a few degrees
no matter what due to the field thrown by the starter/generator. I'll never
forget it, I was flying east and it was stuck on 240 degrees. Hehe, I have
been in more comforting situations. Luckily I just happened to pick out a set
of railroad tracks that led me right to what I think was the most beautiful
airport I've ever seen in Mena, AR. Man, I love to fly, but sometimes it's
damn good to be on the ground.