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Old 8th Jan 2015, 16:38
  #17 (permalink)  
taxistaxing
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Central London
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Another one being total radio failure... You're coming back to your airfield and are about to request rejoin when you realise comms are dead. Obviously there are the no radio procedures, flying triangles etc. But my understanding (it even says in the textbooks) is that these sometimes (usually) don't work.
I'm hardly the voice of experience (just over 200 hours TT) but did experience radio failure last year routing Lydd to North Weald). I was flying with a friend who (thankfully ) was p1 for this leg. We departed Lydd, dropped them off and were about to call southend radar when the radio died - the box went completely blank. We immediately squawked 7600 and were considering returning to Lydd (full ATC versus air-to-ground at north weald).

Five minutes later the radio flickered back into life so we immediately called Southend and explained the situation. They advised us to retain squawk 7600 and continue to north weald as planned. They were extremely helpful and called north weald to co-ordinate our arrival. Sure enough the radio cut out a few more times during the flight but in the end we were able to a normal join and landing at north weald. A hairy experience but my friend coped admirably and we have both learned from it.

In the scenario you describe, radio failure when I about to request joining info I'd probably use the same thought process and weigh up the facilities at the field I was intending to join versus other local airfields.

I wouldn't fancy popping up unannounced in the circuit at a busy a/g field with a failed radio. They have no radar facilities to see a squawk code and no authority to co-ordinate other circuit traffic around you. Fuel permitting I would prefer to squawk 7600 and fly to an ATC airfield that would see me coming and could take appropriate action. Obviously others with more experience may have a different view.

Above all remember your training, "aviate, navigate, communicate". The experience I outlined above highlighted to me how quickly panic sets in and you can become fixated a problem in the cockpit while forgetting to keep a good lookout or monitor your airspeed. The priority is to keep the aircraft flying safely. Once this is done you can think of a plan.
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