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I'd suggest that if you have any concern of this you get with an instructor and do some partial panel work under the hood. Going IMC without an attitude indicator IS NOT lethal if you have been trained for it. Flying partial panel in IMC is standard part of the instrument rating training. You have an altimeter, a compass, and a vsi. It is entirely possible to fly safely IMC with only these instruments, especially in an ercoupe where coordinated flight is not an issue. In the multiengine instrument rating you are doing partial pannel approaches with an engine gone and coordinated flight being very much a major issue. This is not impossible stuff. Anyone can be trained to do it safely with the proper amount of instruction. Yea, its nice to have a functioning attitude indicator. For my money, as nice as the electric stuff sounds, there is a reason none of these inexpensive systems have been TSO'd. As far as reliability for an attitude gyro, a vacuum pump is not as nonreliable as is often reported. Most frequent failures are with aircraft equipped with boots. But a venturi is very reliable and not expensive either. Granted I wouldn't want to go into icing conditions with one, but then how many ercoupes are certified known icing? If you are just going to have it for an emergency backup, a venturi driven attitude gyro is half the cheapest non approved electronic thing I have seen out there. The venturi weighs alot less than a vacuum pump, and it is era correct on an ercoupe. I thought about an attitude gyro when I just redid my panel. I fly sport pilot so its all vfr day. I cannot see the reason for the attitude gyro for my flying. If I go accidentally IMC, which I strongly doubt I will, I'm perfectly comfortable flying partial panel. All I'm gonna have to do is turn around. But even if I had to get with ATC and do a radar vector approach, it is no big deal to do it partial panel. Just get the extra training and you will feel comfortable with it quite quickly. bob branch 99891 ========================================================================== ==== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers/
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