3 ILS approaches, one VOR Alpha approach 700 foot ceilings - Video

Probably one for AOPA..... Hopefully those that get avionic upgrades
that include their nav take this posting to heart....

What happened to me could have turned quite ugly, and fortunately
things worked out OK since I am here to post this.

Did some ILS approaches over HKS. Perfect day for approaches, 600 foot
broken, stratiform type clouds.

Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_k9O...=%2526fmt%3D18

Last week, when I had gone to Brookhaven, I did a cursory test of both
Navs by tuning in the VOR and an ILS on an airport I was crossing
over. Everything checked out perfectly and matched up which I felt was
a good enough test for doing an approach in actual conditions. Fast
forward to today....

I was in solid IMC on my first approach and was getting discrepant
information between Nav1 and Nav2. Hmmmmmm.... Neither gauge had
flags, so I couldn't tell which one was wrong. Approach calls me and
asks me if I am picking up a localizer. I reported back, yes I am but
I am getting discrepant information between my Nav 1 and Nav 2 and I
am working on correcting the problem. Approach then gave me an
advisory that I was west of the approach course so I decided to
discard Nav2 and fly by Nav1 only and I advised approach that I have
the discrepancy resolved and correcting my course. Nav 2 had me east
of course. A few minutes later approach must have seen I was ok, and
switched me over to tower.

Up until that point I didn't know which gauge to believe! Glide slope
on both matched up perfectly on this approach.

Right around the final approach fix Brenz, I started getting a flag on
Nav2 on the localizer only (glide slope still worked and not flagged),
so I continued to use Nav1 as my primary guidance since the flag in my
mind indicated gauge was getting faulty information.

To further confirm Nav1 I was also using the CDI on the Garmin 430
that is suppose to be only for guidance and since both Nav1 and the
GPS matched on the localizer.

Strangly enough, the localizer would act like it was working even
though the flag symbol was displayed. Glide slope pretty much worked
the entire time in spite of the flag popping up as well. Talk about
crazy discrepancies.

The above put me behind the plane briefly and I zigged zagged my way
down, not terribly, but not the best approach of my life. 2nd, 3rd and
4 approaches went fine once I knew Nav1 was ok.

My fourth approach was the VOR Alpha back to Madison and the VOR ended
up being flagged on the gauge, but not the radio as the radio gave me
the to and from radials. Nav2 radio 30SL was picking up the localizer
and showed the identifier, but never showed flagged, but the gauge was
showing flagged so I am not sure where the break point is. A&P coming
from Jackson to Madison to look at it tomorrow.

Soooo, lessons learned NEVER, EVER go out in IMC until 2 or 3 flights
later and all NAV equipment has been tested thoroughly. Simply put
what I really learned today, just testing for receipt of a signal
simply is not enough.

While trouble shooting, I kept saying out loud, fly the plane! Very
easy to get oneself in a boatload of problems when we forget to
AVIATE, then Navigate.

Lasty, I **could** have asked ATC for course guidance, but I didn't
think of that at all since AVIATING was first and foremost and
Navigating, I was trying to figure out which gauge was faulty.