(ArtKramr) wrote:
"Charles Talleyrand" wrote:
wrote:

The USAF began using GPS as far
back as Dec. 1973, but the civilian pilot community is still wrestling
with GPS issues such as accuracy, availability, redundancy, and
integrity to this day. AOPA conducted a study that indicated flying on
GPS w/o autopilot actually resulted in two to four times *greater*
cockpit workload. ... pilots flying via GPS with
out-of-date databases (they're supposed to be updated every
28 days for IFR use), and the list goes on and on...

I dunno. I fly without an autopilot, sometimes with a GPS and
sometimes without. I simply don't believe that the GPS doubles
my total workload. I'm SURE it doesn't double my workload

Could you please provide a reference to this AOPA study? I have
a hard time believing it exists .... this sounds much more like urban
legend than actual fact. I'll be happy to rectact the last sentence if
I'm wrong.

I agree with you. It is amazing that every post in this NG on GPS has been
negative; talking about difficulty of use, failures, inacuracies and time
consuming operations.and also making it seem as though every one who used GPS
was untrained and just generally incompetant. I guess if we had GPS in WW II
we would have lost the war. The mind boggles. (sheesh)

You guys are still missing the point (as I said, I've been using GPS
to navigate in both VFR and IFR for years and I think it's great). To
answer Charles question, you can contact AOPA and ask for Katherine
Fish. She should be able to refer you to the study, or at least give
you a bit of an education on the downsides of GPS.

-Mike Marron
CFII, A&P, etc.