ZS Cessna 206 aircraft down in Mozambique !
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ZS-JPL Cessna 206 aircraft down in Mozambique !
Sad Story
Flying between Dar to Johanesburg last night I heard a C206 reporting fuel problems , flying from Nampula to Polokwane.
I could pick distress signals around position XABAK , 130 to 160 NM on radial 231 from Beira.
On our way back signals were still on
Let's hope for the best
More Info that I had was that the registration was ZS-JPL , Cessna 206 , he had 4 passengers and 1 pilot and endurance of 7 hours.
When he was calling it already dark, I wonder if he managed to land safely but lets hope some good news come out of this.
Flying between Dar to Johanesburg last night I heard a C206 reporting fuel problems , flying from Nampula to Polokwane.
I could pick distress signals around position XABAK , 130 to 160 NM on radial 231 from Beira.
On our way back signals were still on
Let's hope for the best
More Info that I had was that the registration was ZS-JPL , Cessna 206 , he had 4 passengers and 1 pilot and endurance of 7 hours.
When he was calling it already dark, I wonder if he managed to land safely but lets hope some good news come out of this.
Last edited by Zenj; 25th Jun 2012 at 09:20.
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Did a precautionary landing in the veld. No injuries but a/c badly damaged. Was electrical problems, seem the alt gave up and they were losing electrical power with it getting dark. Good ending! Complements to the pilot for a situation well handled!
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Good news and I'm very happy to hear the ending as it has been disturbing me for few days now, the fact that I heard them and they lost radios soon later on.
Well I'm just curious, with 7 hours of fuel , did they plan to fly the Cessna 206 at night ? Nampula - Polokwane is not a short distance at all.
Well I'm just curious, with 7 hours of fuel , did they plan to fly the Cessna 206 at night ? Nampula - Polokwane is not a short distance at all.
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flack jacket on
OK - I will be the one.
Flying at night an your alternator stops working. And you you put the airplane down while you still have fuel? Were you IFR and you found some VFR to put down in?
In your pre flight planning you knew you would be flying at night so you have a flashlight and you know the minimum safe altitude because you have the correct chart.
So now you fly to a lighted uncontrolled field and turn you radio back on to turn the lights on, or you do like I did and wait 30 minutes for someone else to turn them on.
Obviously, I was not there.
Am i the only one?
Flying at night an your alternator stops working. And you you put the airplane down while you still have fuel? Were you IFR and you found some VFR to put down in?
In your pre flight planning you knew you would be flying at night so you have a flashlight and you know the minimum safe altitude because you have the correct chart.
So now you fly to a lighted uncontrolled field and turn you radio back on to turn the lights on, or you do like I did and wait 30 minutes for someone else to turn them on.
Obviously, I was not there.
Am i the only one?
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If the alternator fails you have no idea how long the battery is going to
last. As an absolute minimum you need navigation lights at night plus any instruments that are electrically powered. You will also need your GPS or the radios if you are navigating by beacons.
They did the sensible thing and landed before it got dark, sounds like there was no viable diversion airfield within reasonable range so they used the veld.
Modern aircraft with fancy electonics, glass panels, navigating by GPS etc are going to be more of a problem when the electrics act up.
Navigating at night is easy in SA with plenty of town lighting and roads with lit vehicles to follow but mozambique is a different can of worms with very few clues at night.
I would have done the same thing.
last. As an absolute minimum you need navigation lights at night plus any instruments that are electrically powered. You will also need your GPS or the radios if you are navigating by beacons.
They did the sensible thing and landed before it got dark, sounds like there was no viable diversion airfield within reasonable range so they used the veld.
Modern aircraft with fancy electonics, glass panels, navigating by GPS etc are going to be more of a problem when the electrics act up.
Navigating at night is easy in SA with plenty of town lighting and roads with lit vehicles to follow but mozambique is a different can of worms with very few clues at night.
I would have done the same thing.
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An electrical problem which resulted in an inability to electrically transfer fuel from the long range tip tanks, leaving them with insufficient fuel to continue to their destination or divert to any en route alternates.
Está servira para distraerle.
That would indicate the installation of the Flint tip tank system which requires manually operated electric transfer of fuel from tip tank to main tank whereafter the fuel is gravity fed to the engine? So what do you do, run the mains almost dry and then switch over to auxiliary tanks thereby feeding the engine and replenishing the mains at the same time? FAA regulations prohibit the simultaneous use of mains and replenishment of mains from a Flint tip tank. It sounds as though it is a less than simple fuel system, not one for juggling about with in a fully loaded single in the dark over Africa?
Last edited by cavortingcheetah; 29th Jun 2012 at 14:49.
