Bud_of_yours wrote:

Question #1. In order to get my Instrument ticket tucked safely in my
pocket do I really need to be concerned about learning GPS approches,
etc.?

Yes, you do need to learn about GPS navigation and the associated
instrument approaches. But no, you do not need to have one in your
airplane to train for anf get your IFR ticket. If you don't though,
you should consider renting one that does in order to get some
instruction and practice in GPS approaches.

After you've had most of your basic IFR training you could most
likely become competent with IFR GPS with an additional 10 hours.
At $100/hr that's a good chunk toward buying one for you plane
so you might just want to consider doing it.


Question #2. If I do decide to add a GPS to my panel what is the
best/least expensive way to do it. GNS 155XL? KLN-94?

In my opinion, a GPS without WAAS capability to do the LPV and GLS
approaches isn't really any better than ground based approaches
you can do with your equipment (ILS, LOC, VOR) unless place you fly
out of (or places you go alot) only have GPS approaches. GPS does
offer good situational awareness beacuse of the map though, but you
can get that with a portable GPS... and even do practice non-
precision GPS approaches with them.

I don't plan on keeping this plane forever. And I don't want to invest
a ton of $$$ in it.

Any comments, suggestions, experiences would be appreciated.

Any $$$ invested would probably only be half recovered when you
sell the plane, but a GPS would increase tghe value of it.