[billyboy15]

Why wouldn’t there be a prtable radio in the cockpit?

I flew a Cherokee 180 with 2 radis in the stack and also another hand held just in cass of a power loss.

[elpinta]

Distance is an issue with a handheld radio: most are 5W at the most, so if an aircraft is like 200 miles from the nearest tower, likely to need a real radio (the installed ones, which not only would run 50-100 W perhaps, but would also have long-range modes like SSB, which few handhelds do).

The handheld is great for general aviation and near-coast boating (in their respective frequencies and modes), where somebody or ground/land monitoring is likely to be taking place.

Just a couple of pennies.