Let's see...my Lowrance Tango Uniform story...
First off, I loved the damned thing (100) and I got great service out of it. I have a 500 now in my Luscombe because it mounts nicely to a cross member - unlike the Garmin 296 in my 'Master - and you can't use any yoke mounted device on a stick. But I digress.
Russell and I were on our way to Blakesburg from the Puget Sound area, he in his Ryan SCW and me in my Luscombe. Obviously we didn't fly close together but at least it was easy to find the FBO at fuel stops: just spot the crowd gathering around the gleaming winged jewel in sculpted, polished aluminum. Only tough part was that he'd been wherever it was for awhile before I got there, had already had his coke (the kind that comes in bottles and cans), bathroom break and leg stretch by the time I was prying myself out of the cockpit and he was eager to get going.
Murphy snoozed as we flew though the big mountain country. Too many easily identifiable landmarks. No...it was over some trackless wasteland that followed when he attacked my little Lowrance, like Apollo guiding the spear of Hector into the body of Patroclus outside the walls of Troy. In other words, it sh*t the bed. I'd gotten lazy with the sectional and had little choice but wonder WTF I was as my very lightly wingloaded tiny plane bobbed and nose hunted in the hot churning air. Anyone watching me trying to consult the sectional would have thought I was waving off a wasp as I checked for two nearby VORs so I could plot my position. The same observer would have viewed my attempts to draw lines from two VOR radials as child expressing a temper tantrum with a pen. With remarkably little reluctance I radioed Russell, whose aircraft was less disturbed by these conditions, and he translated the radials into a fix. I found my position and relied on my VOR and sectional the rest of the way...mostly.
Okay, so I got lost near Ottumwa the next day, got flustered, blundered upon Antique Airfield, found myself in the flare despite a guy trying to wave me off with a bright red flag and I'd forgotten to strap my foot back in, meaning I had no right rudder and there was a flight line full of precious antique aircraft just off to my left....but I can't blame that on the little Lowrance. At least I didn't collide with anything. And the fact that I had that piece of electronics, encased in black, sitting right out in the sun for god knows how many hours without it failing is a tribute to the device actually.
Install a panel mount in my Bellanca with its original wiring and believe that will signify? Nuh nuh nuh nuh no. I'm still trying to get the damned VOR to work in THAT airplane. You've made your recent sacrifices to Zeus and the rest of the damned gods, Lynn...it should work out in your airplane.
Jonathan
