Egads, Grayhawk?  Using a marker beacon warrants an "Egads?"

Gadzooks!

I'm afraid that my budget does not allow for a $12,000 Garmin 530-W or even $8000 for a Garmin 430.  I'm afraid that I only have a handheld GPS that cost a few hundred dollars.  My IFR suite is a King KX155.  However, when I sold my Cessna 150 I did save the King DME and also the Narco NAV-121, which gives me a second Nav radio and VOR.  And I splurged and bought an ICOM A200 for a second Com. 

So what do I have?  Two Nav radios with indicators, two comm radios, one glideslope, a DME, and a handheld GPS.  Plus a sectional chart.  If I get lost, there's something wrong.  Basically I'll be navigating along the Victor airways, unless I go direct via "dead reckoning" while, of course, using the handheld GPS "for advisory purposes".  Is that so bad?

Oh, and I have more redundancy than a single panel-mounted GPS, even if the capability is admittedly somewhat brontosaurian.  I should point out that this is what I trained in, this is what I'm used to, and my maximum battles with the IFR gods are only intended to be marine layers in Southern California.  If it's hard IFR, I'm staying on the ground, at least for now.

If I was starting over I'd probably go with a panel-mount GPS, but I bought this stuff piecemeal at great savings over the years.  It will still work.  As for approaches, GPS approaches will be out for me, and I don't think I'll be allowed to substitute the GPS for the marker beacons.

Hence, I'm installing the marker beacon antenna.

- Rob Wolf

P.S.  I will, however, miss the ADF.  It was good for listening to baseball games on summer afternoons.  The rotating card was also useful as an ersatz "heading bug".  However, I did pony up for a real heading bug on my new DG, and now that the Red Sox are the best team in baseball, all the suspense is gone...  ;-)