Do you carry a handheld radio?

My Vertex VXA-710 is the only radio I have, so it usually goes along. I don't carry the 600C GPS unless I'm going more than an hour away from home. I wouldn't be too surprised to see Vertex come up with a Comm/GPS combo. They already sell an amateur radio handheld with a GPS built-in.
 
I don't have one. Every once and a while I think it might be handy to have one - one that would tune in a VOR might be nice. But I hardly use the radio that I have...
 
Handheld VHF and GPS are in the plane when I fly, both with good batteries. When I was a student the panel went dark when I was holding at the taxiway at the departure end of class C airport. I couldn't turn around - big jet behind me. Without the radio, I would have either sat there for a while waiting for the light gun, or climbed out and waved at the tower. The handheld made the whole thing a non event.
 
JohnAJohnson said:
. . .Without the radio, I would have either sat there for a while waiting for the light gun, or climbed out and waved at the tower. The handheld made the whole thing a non event.
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It would have been awesome if the tower staff just waved back. :cornut:
 
I do. Always nice to get ATIS before engine start and not with the aircraft battery on.

Had a complete electrical failure, 1 mile final, selected gear down, saw 3 green flash and everything went black on the panel. Daytime, but recycle the master, checked CBs, nothing. Saw the airplane in front of me clear, check the tower for a light gun, saw nothing and landed. Turned off the runway, dug out the hand held, told ground what had happened and taxied to parking with them.

Nice I had it on that flight.
 
A suggestion for those expecting to use a handheld radios for comms in an emergency -- test it before depending on it.

My 11 year old Sporty's SP-200 did fine in a C152 (talked to Cleveland center, Harrisburg Approach, and LNS tower after I lost electric day VFR -- I was a student), but would not transmit more than 3-4 miles in certain directions in other airplanes (BE-35, AR-11).

After I installed a whip antenna in the Chief and set it up correctly (ground plane, etc), it made the SP-200 as good as a panel mount.I routinely hear folks 40 miles away, and easily contact towers 15 miles out. I've flown through PIT Class B with no problems.
 
ebacon said:
If you expect to use it to communicate over long distances then it's best to have a fuselage mounted antenna.
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That's probably the key there, however I have always flown other people's airplanes so it was never an option. Years ago when I tried transmitting with a handheld the tower couldn't hear me from even a few miles away. Besides the one I have (if I knew where it was) is a very old Icom which is about as big and heavy as a brick and not something I would be inclined to carry around. I'm a little bit of a minimalist when it comes to aviation gadgets but maybe that's because I learned to fly in an era where there weren't many.

That said, a handheld is probably a good idea.
 
I've had no trouble communicating with the tower with mine. It gets charged twice yearly.
 
No radio is ever any better than it's antenna system. On the ground, I'll spend money on the antennas long before I'll spend money on the radios. A good antenna can make a bad radio work well. The opposite is never true.
 
John Baker said:
I've got a big fancy Warrior that is equipped with two questionable flip flop radios, that for the most part, serve me well. They have, more than a few times, refused to cooperate with me. It seems they have picked up on my stubbornness.

I have been able to foil their scheming ways, by breaking out my handheld radio, which I always have with me when I fly.

So, my question: Do you carry a handheld when you fly?

John
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I have a handheld that I sometimes carry with me, but I am not convinced that it is really all that useful. If I am are VFR, then I would rather land nordo at an uncontrolled field, or if I really have to land at a towered field just use light signals. It is much easier than hunting for the handheld and figuring out how to use it. If I am in IMC on a long cruise segment, I suppose one could have enough idle time get the handheld set up, but even in that case it is a convenience rather than a requirement, and I'd much rather avoid the distraction that a handheld could create.
 
sarangan said:
I have a handheld that I sometimes carry with me, but I am not convinced that it is really all that useful. If I am are VFR, then I would rather land nordo at an uncontrolled field, or if I really have to land at a towered field just use light signals. It is much easier than hunting for the handheld and figuring out how to use it. If I am in IMC on a long cruise segment, I suppose one could have enough idle time get the handheld set up, but even in that case it is a convenience rather than a requirement, and I'd much rather avoid the distraction that a handheld could create.
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IFR to handheld came in handy to let PIT APP know I was continuing on last heading to destination (which at the time of the failure was near enough). I called once on the ground and they just said, "Glad to hear all's well."

VFR the need isn't that great, unless you're trying to get into a towered field. While the light signal is an option, in reality it's nearly impossible to get the tower's attention if you're NORDO.

At an uncontrolled field, comms helps increase overall situational awareness. I have heard other airplanes in the vicinity I could not see.
 
sarangan said:
It is much easier than hunting for the handheld and figuring out how to use it. QUOTE]
Good reason to practice once in awhile and to keep the cable and antenna connection handy. Antenna and headset connection are in the seatback, radio in the flight bag. I can be set up in about a minute.
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sarangan said:
It is much easier than hunting for the handheld and figuring out how to use it. If I am in IMC on a long cruise segment, I suppose one could have enough idle time get the handheld set up, but even in that case it is a convenience rather than a requirement, and I'd much rather avoid the distraction that a handheld could create.
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Much easier, really???

If it is buried out of reach then, yes, it isn't very useful. But how much is there really to set up??? Mine is always either on the seat right next to me if I am solo, or on the seat diagonally behind me if I'm flying with someone else. I can reach it without taking my eyes off the panel and it is a matter of a second or two to turn it on and punch in the freq.
 
sarangan said:
I have a handheld that I sometimes carry with me, but I am not convinced that it is really all that useful. If I am are VFR, then I would rather land nordo at an uncontrolled field, or if I really have to land at a towered field just use light signals. It is much easier than hunting for the handheld and figuring out how to use it. If I am in IMC on a long cruise segment, I suppose one could have enough idle time get the handheld set up, but even in that case it is a convenience rather than a requirement, and I'd much rather avoid the distraction that a handheld could create.
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There was once a time when airplanes were much simpler. They had wings, a motor, tail feathers, and a place to sit. They did not require any radios, or navigation devices, heck, they didn't even have ailerons or flaps.

Like all of mans contraptions, other men continued to improve on them. Now today, we have aircraft loaded with so many gizmos, it is hard to imagine anyone having the knowledge to muddle their way through it all and make it actually fly, yet they do.

All of this junk has been added to our airplanes to make them better and safer. What it all boils down to is us having a bunch of tools that we get to use when and if we need them. We really do not need hardly any of them, in order to fly.

I was on a long flight a few weeks ago, my instructor was driving, while I played with my new GPS. We usually flip to see who gets us there and who gets us back.

Anyway, After a while, I started getting bored, I couldn't find anything new or interesting on my GPS, so I started looking around my spartan 30 year old Warrior control panel. I said to Bob, we need more stuff to fiddle with, this plane doesn't have enough lights and switches and things.

He thought that was kinda funny, but he still did not offer to let me drive.

A hand held radio is just another tool. It's a lot like the drill press sitting out in your garage. You hardly ever need it or use it, but when you do need it, you really need it.

John
 
Fearless Tower said:
Much easier, really???

If it is buried out of reach then, yes, it isn't very useful. But how much is there really to set up??? Mine is always either on the seat right next to me if I am solo, or on the seat diagonally behind me if I'm flying with someone else. I can reach it without taking my eyes off the panel and it is a matter of a second or two to turn it on and punch in the freq.
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Not all handhelds let you just poke in a freq. For example the IC-A24 has two modes - preset freq mode and freq entry mode. Switching between the modes isn't exactly intuitive. Mix in actual IMC, darkness, aging vision, and/or radio unfamiliarity and suddenly changing modes becomes an unwelcome distraction.

I keep a reference card for the radio in my kneeboard folder, but if I need to use it then that's just another problem to futz with.
 
I knew I shouldn't have read this thread..now I have to buy a handheld radio:smile:
 
RickH said:
So do I. The only reason I carry a radio is to know when the skydivers are falling out of the sky into my pattern.:eek:
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We don't let them jump into the pattern, too busy. Their landing zone is 2.5 miles away.
 
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