Compass?

[E. D. Eliot]

Since I'm not building yet, this request for info is premature and I think about my 'eventual' RV-12 a lot while I'm working on my house, etc. So, I'm wondering about the advisability of incorporating a compass into my 12 after certification as E-LSA.

Have any of you who are flying added a compass into your 12? Is it useful to you? I'm thinking that if all of the electronics went bad during flight, I'd still have a compass as a useful instrument for basic navigation. Your thoughts please. Which compass are you using? Thanks.

 

[DonFromTX]

I have several laying on the shelf, but am not planning on installing one. With the backups I have I feel I don't need it (Smart phone, IPad, handheld radio with VOR, etc)
I will just fly until the sun starts to set, and that way is West!

 

[rgmwa]

This one, to comply with our regulations requiring the pilot to have some sort of backup compass on board (could have used an iPad app or handheld gps to comply too):

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/inpages/vertcard_compass3.php

 

[Gagarin737]

 

[rv7boy]

I know some RVers who bought their compasses in the aviation department at Walmart. With today's electronics, N-S-E-W is more than you need from a whiskey compass.

Remember that "lead and lag" business? I never could see the usefulness of that when all I wanted to do was follow that river or railroad I could see down there.

 

[rjtjrt]

Re following water, and the usefulness or not of looking at the compass.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta...cle_0e389231-f179-567b-b6fa-3275b93e7293.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyZqTQZqJGU

The young lady apparently, at the turning point, followed the river upstream on a track of approx SW, instead of her "planned" track of NNE along the same river downstream.
Still availability or not of a separate compass wasn't likely to be the cause of her misadventure. Situational Awareness can be difficult to teach.

 

[bobnoffs]

i am an about to be rv-12 builder flying my dakota hawk i built.fwiw i put in a certified vertical card compass and using the display like a d.g. is great. i was using heading vs. bearing on my gps and of course that works but i just like using a display like a d.g. i know there are compass rose displays in my gps but i would pay the $300 again for the vert. card compass. i also like the piece of mind that i have a compass on board.
i looked and looked but no one makes a 2'' display like a d.g. driven my gps i think that would have been nice.
bob noffs
n. wi.