Total electrical failure - (hypothetical)

My Garmin 296 will run for 15 hours after losing power from the
aircraft.

Roy Smith wrote:
Living near the coast (and a flat coastline too), I've often figured
in such a situation I'd dead-reckon out over the ocean, do a blind
letdown as low as I dared (500 MSL?) and hope I broke out. Then
scud-run back to land and hope I could find a coastal airport by
pilotage before I got run over by a jet. Or maybe land on the beach.

That's always been my idea of a final backup plan as well. (Total
electrical failure at the same time my handheld GPS fails seems pretty
unlikely, but you never know.) Why stop at 500 MSL, though? This seems
like pretty much your last out. Why not descend until you can see the
water (which, if you are really unlucky yet a third time on this flight,
will be when it hits your windshield). Unless you have some expectation
that you can stay up until the clouds break, what other choice is there?

--
David Rind

David Rind wrote:
Why stop at 500 MSL, though? This seems like pretty much your last out.
Why not descend until you can see the water

I don't really have a good answer to that. At some point I guess you're
down to picking the least of several evils.

In article , Roy Smith
wrote:

David Rind wrote:
Why stop at 500 MSL, though? This seems like pretty much your last out.
Why not descend until you can see the water

I don't really have a good answer to that. At some point I guess you're
down to picking the least of several evils.

Have you ever read "Flying South" by Barbara Cushman Rowell? There's an
amazing story in there about flying up along the coast of Brazil at
100' MSL in the fog, a VFR pilot, trying to keep the coastline in sight
and find a place to land before she got lost in the fog.

In article
180320052329234845%bodhijunkoneeightyeightjunkatm ,
Tom Fleischman k wrote:

In article , Roy Smith
wrote:

David Rind wrote:
Why stop at 500 MSL, though? This seems like pretty much your last out.
Why not descend until you can see the water

I don't really have a good answer to that. At some point I guess you're
down to picking the least of several evils.

Have you ever read "Flying South" by Barbara Cushman Rowell? There's an
amazing story in there about flying up along the coast of Brazil at
100' MSL in the fog, a VFR pilot, trying to keep the coastline in sight
and find a place to land before she got lost in the fog.

No, I haven't read it. Sounds like a good book. Also sounds like a good
sales pitch for buying a seaplane :-)

You mean, you will *ever* depart IFR without spare batteries for your
handheld GPS? I usually carry two sets of spare batteries.


paul kgyy wrote:
I was doing some practice IFR at home last night with my simulator,
and
set up for random failures. First thing that happened was complete
electrical shut down - no radios, no VOR, no Xponder, and it suddenly
occurred to me that I'd never thought through what I would do. I do
carry backup comm and gps but what if those batteries were also dead,
and I'm in IMC? I know where I am, but there's no way that I can
continue on course for very long. There seem to be only 2 options,
and
both involve finding VFR (go down if ceilings permit, or head for
nearest VFR laterally), but both involve flying off course/altitude
in
cloud without a working transponder.

I'd appreciate some insight from the group.

"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
In article
180320052329234845%bodhijunkoneeightyeightjunkatm ,
Tom Fleischman k wrote:

In article , Roy Smith
wrote:

David Rind wrote:
Why stop at 500 MSL, though? This seems like pretty much your last
out.
Why not descend until you can see the water

I don't really have a good answer to that. At some point I guess
you're
down to picking the least of several evils.

Have you ever read "Flying South" by Barbara Cushman Rowell? There's an
amazing story in there about flying up along the coast of Brazil at
100' MSL in the fog, a VFR pilot, trying to keep the coastline in sight
and find a place to land before she got lost in the fog.

No, I haven't read it. Sounds like a good book. Also sounds like a good
sales pitch for buying a seaplane :-)

On a sad note, after being intrigued by this post, I searched for the book
to buy (found it used on Amazon), but found that the author and her husband,
who was a serious nature photographer mentioned in the same breath as Ansel
Adams, both died in a small plane crash near their home in Bishop, CA, just
before this book came out. Neither was flying the plane at the time. This
news kind of put a damper on my desire to read the book. Then I found a site
with an excerpt from the first chapter. She took off for the flight (the one
in the book, not the other) from Oakland, and met up in the air with someone
who took off from Gnoss, where I learned to fly (crosswind special!) So in
the end, I decided I had to buy it.

No special point here. Just sharing.

Harvey

"Michael" wrote in message
ups.com...

If you know where VFR is, then climb to OROCA and head there.


If are on a low-level airway, is it good form to immediately climb to a
"plus-500-foot" VFR cruise altitude, especially since there won't be anybody
there in IMC except IFR climbers-descenders????

"Tom Fleischman" k wrote in
message
news:180320052329234845%bodhijunkoneeightyeightjun ...
In article , Roy Smith
wrote:

David Rind wrote:
Why stop at 500 MSL, though? This seems like pretty much your last
out.
Why not descend until you can see the water

I don't really have a good answer to that. At some point I guess you're
down to picking the least of several evils.

Have you ever read "Flying South" by Barbara Cushman Rowell? There's an
amazing story in there about flying up along the coast of Brazil at
100' MSL in the fog, a VFR pilot, trying to keep the coastline in sight
and find a place to land before she got lost in the fog.

Having read that book, I was amazed at the stupidity and arrogance displayed
by both the Rowells and their traveling companions. Absolutely incredible.
These people lived to take risks simply for the thrill of risking their
lives, heedless of anyone else.

"Eclipsme" wrote in message
. ..

On a sad note, after being intrigued by this post, I searched for the book
to buy (found it used on Amazon), but found that the author and her
husband,
who was a serious nature photographer mentioned in the same breath as
Ansel
Adams, both died in a small plane crash near their home in Bishop, CA,
just
before this book came out. Neither was flying the plane at the time.

Galen Rowell was not a pilot, so he was not flying the plane. However he
pressured and bullied a pilot to fly them back to Bishop from San Francisco.
The pilot, although a commercial pilot, did not at first want to do the
charter flight because neither he nor the plane nor his operation were
certified for charter flights. The pilot finally agreed to do it in exchange
for some of Galen's pictures. There is some evidence that the pilot had
flown other informal "charter flights" for compensation.

This was a night flight to a mountainous area. The plane was an Aero
Commander and the pilot had slightly over 50 hours in type, but was not
night current. In fact, he had only 1.6 night hours in the plane. Turning
base to final the airplane suddenly banked very steeply and crashed. Given
the Rowells' personalities and their relationship with the pilot, it would
not surprise me terribly if it had actually been Barbara at the controls.
NTSB report he

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?e...19X01425&key=1

The Rowells were truly great photographers. But they were risk addicts who
already had been nearly killed many times. These sort of people are like
bright meteors who streak across the sky of our lives, and then are gone. I
think that the short duration of their lives is not so much sad, as it is
simply the way they chose to live.