Total electrical failure - (hypothetical)

"paul kgyy" wrote in message
ups.com...
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?

This comes very close to the category of a non-critical emergency, defined
as an emergency where, no matter what you do, you are going to die. It is
one of the reasons that single engine light aircraft are unsuitable for long
periods of flight in IMC. Another, of course, is what do you do if your
engine quits? I think that it depends somewhat, too, on where you are and
what you are doing when everything goes dark. Suppose you were on an ILS,
500 feet above DH and in IMC, and you lose your electrical system, what do
you do? You just might be better off trying to continue the approach holding
your heading and rate of descent as closely as possible. You have to have an
out, or you don't do it. It is that simple.

I would hate to have to rely on a handheld GPS in such an emergency, though
of course it would be welcome as better than nothing. Not having that, dead
reckoning is a possibility and it is a skill that should be practiced. A
handheld radio is probably going to be almost useless, though some of them
have VOR.

I also have considered the practicality of heading for the shore, descending
to where I could see the ocean, then flying back in below the scud. The
trouble with this is that visibility usually gets worse over the ocean and
near the shoreline. There are still obstructions and terrain to be dealt
with, and now you have lost any practical ability to navigate with dead
reckoning. You are also going to use up a lot of fuel and you are burning
daylight (if it is night, well, you are welcome to try anything you want,
but your chances of surviving a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head are
probably better).

If you know that you can climb out of the clouds, then that is probably a
good option, but this presupposes either more luck than you deserve or you
planned on this being your out in the first place (do you really trust the
area forecast that much, and where are those tops, anyway?). You are still
left with the problem of finding a place to descend through the clouds
safely and land without running out of fuel, daylight, and ideas. Descending
out of the clouds might work, provided you don't hit anything on the way or
end up in a box canyon somewhere.

Newer single engine aircraft with glass cockpits have backup instruments and
some sort of backup electrical system, even if it is only certified for 30
minutes. They also have terrain displays so that you have at least a small
chance of descending out of the clouds without killing yourself. If equipped
for it, I would consider a total loss of the electrical system a legitimate
reason for deploying an emergency parachute such as CAPS. Beyond that, I
would say that you are taking a serious risk if you insist on flying a
single engine piston airplane in actual IMC beyond, say, punching through a
thin layer.