On 29 Jul 2003 12:33:23 -0700, Jeffrey LLoyd
wrote:

I think we're at the point of bisecting rabbits.

Given what we know, it's perfectly reasonable to state as a general
rule that a failed alternator hardly qualifies as a condition
warranting an emergency landing.

I disagree. Sure, there are still aircraft out there with no electrical
system in the first place, but A) they are not flown in conditions where
the electrical system is essential to safe flight, and B) there are
known failure modes that are intrinsically unsafe (say, involving smoke
or bits of metal flying around inside the engine compartment).

In the absence of other information, and the knowledge that someone
considered a particular situation severe enough to warrant a
precautionary landing, I'd be inclined to take it at face value.
Later, we can armchair quarterback the decision-making.

The Kings who publish all those training materials crashed an airplane
some time back. They were on top, had an alternator failure, had a
case of getthereitis and decided to press on, couldn't find a hole,
ran out of fuel, options, and ideas at the same time. They tell the
story themselves to point out the importance of decision making. If
they can screw up that way, pretty much anyone can.

Furthermore, if a plane I was flying was hit by lightning and blew out
my electrical system, I'd be definitely considering an immediate
off-field precautionary landing to inspect for other damage before
continuing. Yeah, I realize that wasn't in the original reports, but
it does demonstrate yet another hazardous failure mode.

OTOH, I'm aware of several cases that a failed alternator was handled
with nothing more than contacting ATC before the battery ran down, and
getting vectors to VMC and/or a NORDO clearance into the home airport.
It helps to keep the ammeter in the instrument scan.

In fact not only was my last flight was in a plane with no electrical
system, but I lost thrust at 2000' AGL. Okay, I pulled the tow rope
release at the normal altitude, but still...

We had a guy at a local airport declare an
emergency because his GPS went on the fritz in CAVU conditions. He
wasn't lost, he was within sight of at least 2 airports, and
apparently his Nav was working fine. But he freaked out, and declared.
And that airport scrambled the firetrucks because this chucklehead
thought losing a GPS in severe VFR qualified as an emergency. Could it
in certain circumstances? Absolutely. As a general case? Very

Okay, that's a bit over the top. Okay, that's more than a bit over the
top. Panic is insidious. Still better to declare and deal with it on
the ground. Probably feels sheepish, and a 609 ride (or whatever they
call it this week) might be in order, but if you haven't done something
really dumb in the airplane yet, take comfort: you will eventually. As
poor judgement goes, at least it's erring on the right side.

definitely not. Losing an alternator? In certain cases, sure. In
general? Nope.

Semantics perhaps, but I take the position, right or wrong, that the
general case is to treat it as an emergency, and routine in the
particular case.

Look at the difference between losing a GPS, even a panel-mount GPS,
and losing the entire electrical system: a GPS is a single point of
failure. You have reasonable backups available.

When you lose the electrical system, you lose everything: all nav, all
comm. In IMC, that can be bad, very bad. Plus, you may have a
systemic problem that might cause a fire.

these groups. Students read these groups. Should we simply let them go
on believing that if an alternator calls it a day, it's time to
declare?

I'd rather they declared unnecessarily than die of embarassment by not
declaring when they should, but that's beside the point.

As a general rule, what Michael said is absolutely correct. Specific
situations often trump general rules, and I didn't see him or anyone
stating that isn't the case.

Okay, we'll have to agree to disagree. IMHO, the general case is that
it's an emergency, and if other conditions are favorable, then it's not.
It doesn't really matter what the default is because you have to judge
the particular situation when it happens.


Morris