"Jim Macklin" wrote:
The solid state gyros are the best thing IMHO, the weakness
in the small GA airplanes is the poor sensitivity and
accuracy of the gyros and the small size of the displays.
If you get to fly a King Air class airplane, with a gyro
package and displays that cost more than a new G1000 Cessna
172, you'll see 5 or 6 inch AI and HSI, in a dual
[independent] panel. It is easy to control and steady.
There is real performance monitoring of the gyros, not just
a failure on the power flag.

Once you've got all electronic data in one place like a G1000 does, I would
think it would fairly straight forward to do some basic data consistency
checking.

For example, if the AI says you're in a 10 degree nose-up attitude, but
airspeed is near the top of the green arc and increasing (and altitude is
decreasing), something has to be wrong. Likewise, if the AI says you're
wings level, but your heading keeps changing, something has to be wrong (I
know, you need to factor in the slip/skid data, but you've got that too).

It's all the same cross-check we learned to do in instrument training, but
done by a machine that never gets bored, distracted, or confused. It may
have other failure modes, but bordom, distraction, and confusion are not
among them. Those are reserved for the wetware.