Originally Posted by
john_tullamarine
over the next 1/2 hour or so we lost the PFD, then MFD, then radios in the YMMB circuit and finally the transponder after touchdown.
Hence the critical importance of load shedding at the earliest opportunity, keeping only that which is absolutely essential for the extant circumstances. It's a bit like the air above and the runway behind ... once the amp hours have gone, they can't be prayed back into the system at the time regardless of whichever god to whom you might choose to pray. A real worry are some of the insidious failures which can occur without quite enough alerting to the pilot ...
Day VMC ... ho-hum, perhaps a quick radio call to advise situation and intent and then turn it all off .... dark night IMC .... oh dear. It is to emphasise this concern that we routinely practice flight on standby in sim exercises. There, it all goes black at the appointed time and I am talking about REALLY black. Captain Training only needs one exposure to get the story well and truly fixed in the mind for the next time around. Having said that, generally one can cobble together a recovery in the majority of circumstances providing we can leave the panic thing at home. Might be a tad sweaty at the time.
Sounds like fun!
...but you're quite right there - and being Day VMC for me it was indeed ho-hum, with the instructor calling the tower on the phone and then a quick call on radio closer in (while we could).
The real eye-openers for me that day were:
(a) Unless you're willing to shut down your fancy power-hungry PFD&MFD and go straight to standby instruments, the ship's batteries never last as long as you think they will!, and
(b) QF32 Syndrome (constantly acknowledging alarms as you lose various parts of your system) adds quite a bit to the workload of an average GA pilot. Better hope you're not scud-running in marginal weather over tiger country at the time, looking for a safe place to put down.