Valin sez...

 "Shannon had the SFS/Chelton EFIS, Garmin 430, and the Avidyne
FlightMax.
 Won't each one of them give you the nearest airport with the press of
a
 button or two...?"

_____________________

I didn't want to be presumptuous about Shannon's particular situation
when making my key points, but one would assume that he punched up the
nearest airport on at least one of his boxes and was aware of Blackhawk,
but for whatever reason chose to try to make it to Dane Co.  If we
assume that his engine didn't quit right away but was only giving
indications of problems, he may have presumed he could baby it into Dane
Co. where could be sure there would be a full-service FBO to help him
fix it.  Or maybe he wanted a longer runway (the longest at Blackhawk is
2800').  It will be interesting to see what the Chelton data shows.  If
the engine didn't totally quit until just before he went in, that would
seem to support the assumption that he thought he could make the airport
under power.  If it quit back when he called ATC, then I'm at a loss to
understand why he wouldn't have gone to Blackhawk or into one of the
many farmer's fields in that area.

Lee Metcalfe