Preparing for the unexpected...

[Pilot DAR]

This evening, after 2505.4 trouble free hours of operation of the electrical system of my C150, it quit. First the alternator. Everything checked as it should be, no popped breakers, nothing else wrong. Recylcling did not fix anything. Then after some massive shedding of electrical loads, the battery quit, as I was extending the flaps for landing. Landing light? Not a hope! I had thought that the battery would hang in longer, it's only a few years old.

With the final leg of my flight in full darkness, I kept a very careful watch for aircraft who now could not see me. My super bright white LED flashlight in flash mode out the back window, perhaps offered a little visibility at the back for just about every other aircraft on earth which could catch up to a 150!

My little home made tiny white LED party light on a clear suction cup, on the airspeed was nice too, or I would have been landing into the black hole with the flashlight in my teeth.

And of course, after landing and shut down, a repeated system check demonstrated that everything worked perfectly! I'll investigat tomorrow...

As I flew along for the last half hour, no longer able to enjoy the music on my noise cancelling headphones, navigate by GPS in the dark, or expect a landing light for a landing, I thought back to our recent turmoil about landing, and how vital it was to actually know the airspeed to complete it safely. Having prepared for the unexpected, I can happily report that I did not have to prove the poster wrong!

Pilot DAR, "who had foolishly thought that system failures were from my past, not my present!"

[IO540]

Well done PD :ok:

I too think the airspeed indication is pretty important...

[Final 3 Greens]

Well pleased you made it okay and full marks for preparing so well.

I supppose my only comment on the thread title is that it was not unexpected, just a very low probability risk with high severity.

To have it happen at night is even lower probability, too.

It just shows how important active risk management is as a pilot of small aircraft - thanks for sharing, there are a couple of really nice takeaways there for the rest of us.

[barrow]

Are you telling me you can't land or fly without a functioning ASI?
Can you not use, pitch+power=performance.
I know it was night, but I won't sign off a ppl stude till they can fly a perfect pattern 5 times in a row with no cockpit lighting, and a covered ASI.

[Fright Level]

I won't sign off a ppl stude till they can fly a perfect pattern 5 times in a row with no cockpit lighting, and a covered ASI

Good grief, this is either a troll or you don't have many of your students coming back :bored:

[barrow]

Why do you say that mate?

And I aint no troll!

[BackPacker]

...or I would have been landing into the black hole with the flashlight in my teeth.

I always carry a headlamp in my flightbag in addition to the ubiquitous mini Maglite. The light is always where you look and it keeps your hands free. Better on the teeth too, and no drooling... Don't walk into the clubhouse still wearing it though: It looks a bit silly.

In my case I have the Petzl Tactikka Plus. It runs forever on 3 AAA batteries, has three brightness settings plus a strobe setting, and has an integrated flip-in-front red filter so your night vision isn't screwed up from using it in the cockpit. It's also just 78 grams including batteries, very compact and very tough.

Petzl Headlamps - 2- TIKKA - ZIPKA series TACTIKKA® PLUS (http://en.petzl.com/petzl/LampesProduits?Produit=482)

For flying I think the Tactikka Plus is the best combination of kit. But there are other variants and brands, including ones that are a lot cheaper.

[Final 3 Greens]

Good grief, this is either a troll or you don't have many of your students coming back

He didn't say he did this at night :}

[Contacttower]

I know it was night, but I won't sign off a ppl stude till they can fly a perfect pattern 5 times in a row with no cockpit lighting, and a covered ASI.

No cockpit lighting in the sense that they can't see any instruments at all?

Or just that they need to use a torch?

[barrow]

No cockpit lighting in the sense that they can't see any instruments at all?

Or just that they need to use a torch?No lights, in the sense of an electrical failure at night!
No flap,
No landing light,
No cockpit lighting,
No torch,
Failed ASI.

Failures applicable to A/C, I don't think it's alot to ask of any pilot in a non complex or complex single.

[tacpot]

For flying I think the Tactikka Plus is the best combination of kit. But there are other variants and brands, including ones that are a lot cheaper.

I bought the Energizer Headlight for my night flying, £10 from Tescos in the UK. It works fine, is very comfortable, but looks daft if you are seen wearing it!

As well as varoius Maglights I keep in my Flight bag, I also keep a couple of those light sticks that illuminate when you break them. They have a integral hook that allows you to clip them onto just about anything on the cabin roof. They provide a gentle illumination for over an hour, and the batteries can never fail...

tp

[Pilot DAR]

Hi Barrow,

Thank you for your concern. I feel very confident in my ability to land at night with a completely dark panel, and have done it for practice many times. That said, such practice was usually at one of several airports in the Toronto area, where there are ample visual cues from the local lit horizon, as to what your relationship to earth is, at any given moment.

My home runway, on the other hand, is 2000' by 60', with trees on three sides, and very few illuminated references for miles around. Black hole syndrome, particularly if a go around is required because of the added chance of a screwed up approach, and the fact that whatever flap got extended can no longer be retracted.

Risk management seemed to make whatever I had aboard which would reduce risk, worth employing! Years ago (about 30) my night rating required repeated night circuits with no inside cockpit information, which became rather fun. I practice a little from time to time, but not when I'm tired, and into my own black hole. The headlamps are a good idea, I was leant one once during a police boating coarse I took, and it did work! I'll go shopping...

Pilot DAR

[Pace]

Just a small tip if the torch or whatever goes belly up and dies. Use your mobile phone. The light is pretty good although you have to keep touching a button to keep it illuminated but its better than nothing.

Pace

[Genghis the Engineer]

Sounds not unlike an experience I had a few years ago doing a favour to Whirylbird, whose C150 had just come out of maintenance (I believe that her syndicate changed maintenance company shortly afterwards).

Identifying a well lit airfield, and joining in the dark with existing traffic there wasn't too difficult, the bit where my buttocks started to clench was putting the flaps down - they unsurprisingly didn't, which however did surprise me at the time since for some reason that just hadn't occurred to me up to that point, despite appropriate load shedding and (just in case it was working) squawking radio failure. I was surprised and relieved to discover that I could do a flapless landing in the dark on a 600m runway that I'd not landed on for several years - in about 1/3 of the available length!

Out of interest PilotDAR, whilst it obviously came off okay, are you still convinced that landing at your badly lit home strip was the best option rather than diverting somewhere with better lighting? (Assuming that you had somewhere)

I also keep a couple of those light sticks that illuminate when you break them. They have a integral hook that allows you to clip them onto just about anything on the cabin roof. They provide a gentle illumination for over an hour, and the batteries can never fail...

What a damned good idea, I keep some for camping but for some reason it never occurred to me to keep one or two in my flight bag.

G

[Pilot DAR]

Landing in the rather dark home runway was an accpetable risk, as I had multiple standby cockpit light sources, so instrument lighting was not at risk. I regularly practice no landing light landings in here, as my 150 has only one bulb, and it's gonna quit short final sometime!

Were that not to have been the case, I would have gone elsewhere, though around here at night, elsewhere is either a 25 or 40 minute flight, followed by an hour plus drive to that airport. There are not a lot of lit runways in this part of the world.

I Suspect that I have a voltage regulator problem, but it's still in the diagnosis stage, as the electrical system worked fine during a test, and two flights today...

I have the minds working on it!

Pilot DAR

[SNS3Guppy]

I'll bite. Why would you suppose Pilot DAR would have lost his airspeed indicator because he had an alternator failure, in a Cessna 150? Are you aware of some new connection between the electrical system and the airspeed indicator?

Seems a non-sequitor introduction of an irrelevant topic into this thread.

[Contacttower]

No lights, in the sense of an electrical failure at night!
No flap,
No landing light,
No cockpit lighting,
No torch,
Failed ASI.I see your point about landing without any cockpit lighting being a useful exercise (never done it myself but then I always carry a torch)....

What is the purpose though of pretending the ASI has failed?...You wouldn't be able to see it anyway....

[Final 3 Greens]

Maybe you should read the thread a little more carefully, as I do not see anyone linking PilotDAR's electrical failure to losing the ASI in his Cessna.

What Barrow asked was "Are you telling me you can't land or fly without a functioning ASI?" in response to DAR saying "My little home made tiny white LED party light on a clear suction cup, on the airspeed was nice too, or I would have been landing into the black hole with the flashlight in my teeth."

So it is clear that Barrow was not making "a non-sequitor introduction of an irrelevant topic into this thread", but just challenging DAR as to whether he could land without a functioning ASI, at night, to clarify his comments."

DAR replied that he could, under certain circumstances, but preferred not to, this time.

Barrow then expanded upon his practice as an instructor in response to Contact Tower, but not in respect of Pilot DAR's incident.

What's the big deal?

No doubt this post will generate 17 paragraphs of response, with war stories and an invitation to rewrite the flight training manual :bored:

[Pilot DAR]

Yes,

In the larger context of a recent thread, where the use of the airpseed indicator would seem to be a vital element of a sucessful landing, even in the most favourable flying conditions, It seemed somehow ironinc that I, the trouble maker who first suggested that a successful landing could be predicted and accomplished with cues other than the airspeed indicator, should be placed in the situation where I nearly had to prove it.

Yes, I could have diverted to another airport, where all kinds of assistance and visual cues would make a landing with a darkened instrument panel (and still serviceable, but also dark airspeed indicator) easy, but an extra half hour of night flying, into busier airspace with no nav lights, with only a portable radio, and no other electricity, seemed needlessly risky, mostly for all of the other aircraft who would be around me!

I have been jested for carrying too much extra equipment in my modest airplane, but you never seem to have the system failures when everything is going well, they always wait for it to be just a little more inconvenient, or you to be a little less prepared, before quitting. So I was prepared, and it made the difference! I got where I was going safely.

We are all duty bound to not only be prepared for the flight, but for the additional things which reasonably could happen during the flight. I completely agree that a part of that preparation, would be to be ready to land at night after a complete electrical failure. After decades of being prepared, I had to do it! No big deal!

Pilot DAR

[Final 3 Greens]

PilotDAR

This incident is a great reminder that failures often happen at inconvenient moments, requiring thoughful decisions.

I once lost both radio boxes on 4 mile final ("under a continue approach" clearance), #2 to an aircraft clearly in sight, with 4 or 5 VFR aircraft following downwind, on base and on long final and also an instrument aircraft under vectors for the ILS.

This was at a large international airport with ATC and secondary radar.

Having a couple of minutes to think about things, I watched the aircraft in front land and clear, then decided to land after and vacate ASAP. (Having set the transponder to 7600 on final, although it was also u/s as I discovered later.)

I went to the tower to pay the landing fee, somewhat nervously, as I was not sure how my decision would be received, to be reassured by the staff that the controller was very happy I did not start flying around the busy pattern waiting for clearance by lights - under the circumstance we both preferred me to be on the ground and out of the equation.

On a quiet day, I would have followed the standard approach to lost comms, gone around and then waited for the tower to clear me by light.

I also bought a hand held radio, although that was bolting the stable door
after the occupant had long gone :}

[Captain Smithy]

A nice honest story DAR, glad you got down in one piece. :ok:

Keep us informed as to what the problem was.

A number of interesting tips/thoughts on this thread too.

Smithy

[SNS3Guppy]

I once lost both radio boxes on 4 mile final ("under a continue approach" clearance), #2 to an aircraft clearly in sight, with 4 or 5 VFR aircraft following downwind, on base and on long final and also an instrument aircraft under vectors for the ILS.

This was at a large international airport with ATC and secondary radar.

Having a couple of minutes to think about things, I watched the aircraft in front land and clear, then decided to land after and vacate ASAP. (Having set the transponder to 7600 on final, although it was also u/s as I discovered later.)

I went to the tower to pay the landing fee, somewhat nervously, as I was not sure how my decision would be received, to be reassured by the staff that the controller was very happy I did not start flying around the busy pattern waiting for clearance by lights - under the circumstance we both preferred me to be on the ground and out of the equation.

On a quiet day, I would have followed the standard approach to lost comms, gone around and then waited for the tower to clear me by light.

I also bought a hand held radio, although that was bolting the stable door
after the occupant had long gone


There's your war story. You've only 11 paragraphs to go...are you going to re-write the flight manual now, too?

[Pilot DAR]

After checking everything for condition and security, and the voltage regulator for operation within specification, I figured that I had electrics fixed, but no, it quit again today after 30 minutes of flying.

There was only one thing I had not checked, as there really is no way to check it visually - the overvoltage sensor. It turns out, that some very long time ago, long since forgotten, I had anticipated such a failure, (someone must have suggested it to me!). After some thought, I recalled having installed a hidden switch for this situation. Sure enough, up under the panel, there was a switch which shorted out (bypassed) the live leads of the overvoltage sensor. By switching the switch, I removed the overvoltage sensor from the circuit, and it worked just fine, Unless the voltage goes over!

New overvoltage sensor on order!

So, with that worked out, and the test flying of the day as complete as the day would allow it to be, I got in to fly home. As I taxiied out, I could feel tickling in my ear, I lifted my headset, and rubbed my ear, A minute later it was tickling again. This time I had a better look. A large hornet had taken up residence in the headset, and was walking around. Ooooo, that would have hurt!

I wonder what should I unexpect next?