Radio failure
Hey all, this is my first post to this forum, so i hope to make it an entertaining/educational one.
I did a cross country flight yesterday from Phoenix, AZ to Blythe, CA. I have my PPL and about 40-50 hours on top of it and am currently taking instruction for my commercial/instrument licenses. I did the typical run up for the PA28, everything was perfect, took off and headed on over to California. Right as I cross the border I noticed that the alternator charging gauge has completely stopped moving and is sitting on the far left side, indicating it's not working. Not being how sure the alternator has been out, I quickly turn off all of the electronics I can to preserve whatever amount of battery power I have left. I'm right next to my airport so I quickly call in to see if there's anyone there that can look at it, but to no avail it's Sunday. There was a kind soul on the taxi-ramp though that explained to me there wasn't a person there that could help me out, so I turned off my radio and turned around.
Normally this wouldn't have been TOO big of a deal except that the flight was supposed to be mainly reliant on VOR. My flight instructor is relatively new and has been pushing the whole "rule of thumb" technique as to when it comes to making flight plans. However, I've been reluctant to budge and it paid off on that flight. I quickly grabbed my flight plan and set off on new co-ordinates that weren't VOR related, but instead flew directly over a large hi-way that would take me all of the back home.
I come over a large lake that is well used when calling to my airport and tell them my position and situation with nearly no battery power, and they give me a straight in approach for runway 4L, and request I call out at 2 miles if possible. I acknowledge and again shut off all electronics until I reach my 2 mile barrier where I switch everything back on and call the airport. They again clear me to land so I land (smoothest ever for some reason), and then taxi off the runway. At tihs point my battery is completely gone so there's no functioning radio left ot use.
Now I remembered that you are supposed to roll your wings while in the air to signal to the airport that your radio communications is down, but now that I was on the ground this didn't seem to apply, so I just sit there on the taxiway and wiggle the controls as much as possible so the plane while gather their attention, elevator and aileron's flapping. After a few seconds I see an extremely bright green beam of light, indicating it's safe to taxi. I head back to the hangar, tie her down, and go inside and tell the mechanics what's happened with the plane.
Not exactly an extremely close call, but something that's made me contemplate the meaning of life for an hour or so afterwards as this could hav ebeen a lot messier.