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While it’s legal under part 91 to have only a magnetic compass, a vaccine powered gyro DI (or solid state equivalent) can be found in the majority of the GA fle

While it’s legal under part 91 to have only a magnetic compass, a vaccine powered gyro DI (or solid state equivalent) can be found in the majority of the GA fleet. The aircraft without a DI are typically ones with bush flying or acrobatic missions, where pilots don’t spend much time looking at their instruments for navigation anyway.

_ea1k 5y ago
It took me a while to realize that you meant vacuum powered. :)
- AdamN 5y ago
  Q up there made a Freudian slip :-)
AdrianB1 5y ago
In my country (Romania) all of the small planes I flied (about a dozen) had just 2 or 3 magnetic compasses. These planes are allowed to fly only on visual orientation conditions (weird local laws), so navigation is not a real concern.
- p_l 5y ago
  I think any requirement to have gyroscope-based instruments only comes in with IFR (at the very least you need turn indicator due to lack of horizon reference). It's not any weird local laws, it's common aviation laws :) though navigation is a big thing even in VFR ;)
  - AdrianB1 5y ago
    The weird local law is that small planes are not allowed to fly IFR even if they are equipped for that and the pilot is rated. These planes are not even allowed to fly above a low-level cloud with partial coverage.