Would a Garmin 396 GPS, running on its own battery, on flight panel, be useful?

Terrence,

 

It would be useful if you had the time to go from the standard nav page to the backup instrument panel page while the airplane was going through some pretty good gyrations and recover it to S&L flight. Can you do that on a 396? The question you have to ask yourself (from the movie "Dirty Harry") is "do you feel lucky?" or have you practiced flying off the 396 with nothing else operating. Can you keep the airplane upright for 20-30 minutes while you navigate to VMC conditions? If so, then it is a minimalist backup system-- if not then you need something else.

 

Designing one of these panels, IMHO, is an exercise in NOT putting all your eggs in one basket.

 

Regards,

 

Jeff