greg piehl wrote:
I would be very cautious in the air, as any wind at all will cause a crab of the aircraft, thus changing your compass reading by several degrees or even substantially more. Why not just fly by the ifly to your destination? Then you can use the airport compass to check. And actually, and I have reservations of saying this, is the compass going to be obsolete with certified gps? Certainly not by the FAA, as they will last year's issues in a 5 or 10.
You are correct about the crab angle. Perhaps I should say I will use this as a means of alignment only if it is obvious the compass has a serious error. Usually, though, I can eyeball my ground track and compare it to the aircraft heading, and get some idea if a serious error exists.
A far as flying to the destination without being reasonably sure about compass heading, I think if you saw the area from the air, you'd know why. Those who are interested (including, obviosly, yourself) should look at the flight path from Alpine, Texas, to Pecos, Texas. I've flown it (although in reverse) with a compass and gps in another airplane. I learned to fly in a similar environment, and I still didn't feel totally comfortable.
I agree that the FAA holds on to things forever, but I feel the problem is worse than that: they hold onto things they no longer need, and get rid of other things we still need. I wouldn't trust any navigatonal aid of which I'm aware without some sort of backup.
The gps can be jammed; I've flown through a couple of areas in the country where the gps quit every time I went through that area. I had to use the compass to maintain my previous heading, until the gps worked again. It looked to me as though there was some sort of interferring signal in that area.
Me, I'd like to see them keep VORs as a backup for the same reason.