On Mar 27, 6:17*pm, wrote:
Holy Single Points of Failure, Batman!!!!!!

My airplane only has one engine with one crankshaft and one
propeller!!! And only one rudder too!!!!!

ZOMG!!!!! I'm gonna DIE!!!
And so are you.
And that's guaranteed. 100% of us are all gonna die.

That's certainly guaranteed, but I personally have no desire to hasten
my death. That won't keep me from flying. Or from flying IFR. It
hasn't kept me from soaring, skydiving, BASE jumping, riding
motorcycles, traveling to South America, etc. It has, however, caused
me to pay attention to single point failures.

A rudder failure in a single engine airplane won't ever kill you. It
just means you will have to land a little hot and straight into the
wind, and that may mean some damage (though if the way lots of
students land these days is any indication, maybe not so much), but as
long as you keep your head, you will live. You shouldn't even get
hurt in a lot of airplanes (I have a suspicion that most of the
Cherokees on the rental line are landed without rudder use as a matter
of course).

An engine failure in a single engine airplane has a likelihood of
killing you, and that likelihood depends a lot on how you use the
airplane and what sort of airplane it is (check into the accident
record of Cessna T210's sometime - pretty scary).

All planes are not created equal. Some have more nasty single point
failures than others. The OP actually brought up a point that, while
not totally valid, is also something that (in my experience) most
pilots have not considered - and should. There are planes out there
(single AND twin) where a single point failure will actually take down
the entire electrical system and give you a dark airplane. What's
more, some of these single point failures are (a) relatively common,
and (b) more likely to occur as the plane gets older and wiring is not
replaced.

Day-VFR, this is not a big deal. Heck, day-VFR I'll cheerfully fly a
plane with no electrical system at all (and have). But night-IFR it's
not so nice. Even night-VFR. BTDT.

If you're flying a plane where several common single point failures
exist, each of which alone can take down your electrical system, you
would be foolish to fly it IFR in conditions where you can't simply
cruise to VFR or make a safe descent over an open area, unless you
have a reasonable backup. Once upon a time that backup used to be a
handheld Nav-Com, which allowed you to shoot some sort of half-ass VOR
or LOC (and I do know someone who has had to do it). These days the
sensible backup is a handheld GPS. Of course to make use of it, you
need to know how to shoot an approach off it. What's more, you need
to be able to shoot the full approach because you won't be getting
RADAR services.

Do you know how? Have you ever tried? Think maybe you should?

Michael