John & Martha King are quoted in this article by the NBAA. It originally appeared on the National Business Aviation Association website on October 8, 2025 To view the original article Click Here.
“When the glass goes dark, you better have skills to fall back on,” said John Dorcey, former chief pilot for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and recipient of the FAA’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot and Charles Taylor Master Mechanic awards.
As many aircraft are equipped with backup analog instruments, pilots need to practice using them and understand their limitations. “Analog instruments are generalists,” Dorcey explained.
“Is the needle pointing at about the right spot? How long would you need to study the position of an airspeed indicator’s needle to determine that it is showing an airspeed of 87 KIAS? Additionally, every pilot should have a basic knowledge of navigation to include the magnetic compass, the VFR sectional chart and operation of an E6-B. That knowledge will help if the equipment loses GPS reception. Imagine being in the position of not having the rudimentary skills that would enable you to guide your aircraft to a safe landing at an airport near or far.”
“Today’s ‘modern’ pilots should not blithely assume the GPS signal is infallible,” said aviation educator Martha King, who with her husband John King has helped train thousands of pilots. “I have personally seen multiple instances of GPS signal loss due to U.S. military GPS-jamming tests, and there are frequent reports of GPS jamming internationally in conflict areas.”
In the absence of GPS, a pilot needs to know how to determine ground speed and how to determine wind correction angles to enable dead reckoning, said King, noting years ago when they flew in IFR in Alaska. “There would be several hundred miles with no VOR navigation signals or ATC communications,” King said. “In IMC conditions, good dead reckoning skills let us be almost exactly on course when we regained VOR reception.”
Instruments mean nothing without the skills to support them, said Alex Munro, a pilot for a Part 135 operation in Alaska.
“In the Lower 48, we teach VFR pilots that anything less than 3 miles visibility and 1,000-foot ceilings is borderline suicidal. We would consider that a damn good day in rural Southwest Alaska,” Munro said.
Flying at night with no ground lights can be spooky. “Several minutes into your flight when you have settled into your scan you get a very surreal feeling that you are motionless,” said Munro. “No scenery passes by, the gauges are static, the MX display shows your plane just to the right of the magenta line, but otherwise the only thing which changes over time is the distance to the next waypoint. If your scan isn’t bulletproof, you won’t do well.”
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