From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!alice!danny
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Title: Re: IFR insurance low cost
Article-I.D.: alice.1418
Posted: Tue Jan 25 17:23:48 1983
Received: Fri Jan 28 03:06:07 1983
References: ihuxr.295 avsdT.271 ihuxa.180


Having nothing but 121.5 capability in an IFR emergency situation
is even more useful than has been pointed out on the net.
Perhaps more important than the many ground facilities that
monitor 121.5 are the large number of airline and gen. av. pilots
who make a point of "guarding" 121.5 on an otherwise unused radio
and can relay emergency messages to a ground facility on an
appropriate frequency.  This can be quite significant since VHF
air-air range can easily be a couple of hundred miles.

As for an inexpensive back-up altimeter, you can do better than the
$95 skydiver model.  I've seen altimeters meant for auto dashboards
that sell for $16 and should be accurate to within several hundred
feet.  Not the kind of thing you'd wanna use for a non-precision
approach to minimums, but better than nothing at all.