Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 8; Flight Crew Total 1700; Flight Crew Type 500
Troubleshooting; Confusion; Distraction; Situational Awareness; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Aircraft
During my initial climb to 5000 ft; I experienced a total loss of GPS signal on my Avidyne IFD550; IFD440; Aspen MFD and Garmin Aera 796. Flight was on an IFR flight plan in VMC. I reverted to flying V14 SGF V63 using VOR navigation from the IFD550. However; the signal loss also disabled the IFD's DME display to provide location along the airway. That required using the IFD440 to provide a cross-radial check for position along the airway. I was also able to use my Iphone 10 with Foreflight for situational awareness. That device maintained GPS functionality. Upon landing in ZZZ; all signals came back and displays were normal during roll-out and taxi. The same issue happened on the return flight around 5300 MSL in the climb. My troubleshooting including turning off the IFD440 (it was the newest radio and recently installed). Within 20 seconds; all GPS signals were normal and all devices functioned normally. I left the IFD440 off for the duration. Had this been a flight in IMC; it would have been quite a workload for situational awareness. I would likely have requested vectors to the nearest airport; but without DME; it would have increased the workload even on an ILS. I was proactive to have redundancy onboard (two radios; PFD/MFD with backup GPS; and a portable Aera 796. That redundancy didn't help in this case. A suggestion would be to provide a better awareness to pilots to discuss options/likely cause of a total loss of GPS signals across multiple devices. The airplane is currently in the shop. The likely culprit is a Garmin antenna failure. A Service Center Communique from Garmin likely applies. It reads in part:'Garmin has become aware that in some dual GPS installations; a single failed antenna can cause both systems to drop satellites. In this case; failure of one antenna interferes with but does not cause damage to the working antenna.'The two antennas were not replaced when I upgraded the radios from a Garmin 540w/430w to the IFD 550/440.
GA pilot reported a GPS failure due to an onboard equipment failure.