Avionics failure yesterday...

Would welcome any comments on the experience.

I think you did fine.

You had a landing you could walk away from, and the airplane is
reusable.

When it appeared there was no real smoke and the smell
disappated I tried cycling the master. Nothing bad, but no audio panel
(completely dead) and thus no radios.

At first I read this as the master, but I think you meant the avionics
master. Did any radio lights come on? Did the transponder do its
transponder blikey thing?

I had an alternator failure once, at night over water coming back from
Block Island with a full passenger load (four in all). In retrospect I
should have tried cycling the master (I may have actually tried that; I
don't remember). My first response was to turn things off to conserve
the battery, and to reassure the passengers that the engine would keep
running without electricity and we were perfectly fine. I considered
what drew the most juice and what gave me the most bang for my buck, and
settled on one comm radio, the strobes (which I later turned off), and
the transponder. I told ATC (I had flight following) what had happened
and what I was doing, they were fine with that. ("are you declaring an
emergency?" "no, not at this time").

The front seat passenger startd to feel a little queasy, so I managed to
get the air vent pointing right at him, which helped a lot.

They asked my intentions, which were to continue on to Danbury, and that
I'd be turning the transmitter off. I remember they asked other
questions, getting my response via squawking ident on the transponder,
then halfway across the Sound I turned the transponder off, figuring
they had me on primary, and knew where I was going anyway. It was a
clear and a million night, so I flew to Danbury, turned on the radio to
contact the tower and landed uneventfully.

My friends were very impressed. I guess it doesn't take all that much,
but knowing that the engine would keep turning is key.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jose wrote:
I had an alternator failure once, at night over water coming back from
Block Island with a full passenger load (four in all). In retrospect I
should have tried cycling the master (I may have actually tried that; I
don't remember). My first response was to turn things off to conserve
the battery, and to reassure the passengers that the engine would keep
running without electricity and we were perfectly fine.

So far, so good.

I considered
what drew the most juice and what gave me the most bang for my buck, and
settled on one comm radio, the strobes (which I later turned off), and
the transponder. I told ATC (I had flight following) what had happened
and what I was doing, they were fine with that. ("are you declaring an
emergency?" "no, not at this time").

Again, so far so good.

The front seat passenger startd to feel a little queasy, so I managed to
get the air vent pointing right at him, which helped a lot.

They asked my intentions, which were to continue on to Danbury

Now I'm starting to think there was a bit of get-home-itis going on. I
don't know what you were flying, but BID to DXR is the better part of an
hour in most spam cans. You were going to overfly a half-dozen towered
airports where you could find repair services and rental cars during that
time.

How did you know you were going to still have enough battery in a half hour
to work the radio? Maybe before the alternator went off-line, it hadn't
been charging the battery very well for quite a while and you had a lot
less battery time than you thought you did.

How do you know it was the alternator itself which was at fault, and not
some short somewhere which knocked the alternator off-line and was
continuing to drain the battery?

I know you said it was "clear and a million", but I can tell you from
experience that at night, you probably won't know there's a cloud in the
sky until you find yourself inside it.

DXR has a part-time tower. What if you got there after the tower closed
and didn't have any working radio to turn the runway lights on? DXR is
surrounded by high terrain. Not the kind of place I'd like to be trying to
find a runway in the dark.

You've already got a pax who's not feeling well. What were you going to do
if "a little queasy" suddenly turned worse and you had no working radio to
tell ATC that you needed priority handling at the nearest airport due to an
ill passenger?

Day-VFR by yourself, an alternator failure should be a complete non-event.
At night, it becomes a bit more of an issue. With non-pilot pax (who are
YOUR responsibility), I'd be thinking much more conservatively. With one
of the pax not feeling well, I'd be thinking getting on the ground at the
first reasonable opportunity.

Now I'm starting to think there was a bit of get-home-itis going on. I
don't know what you were flying, but BID to DXR is the better part of an
hour in most spam cans. You were going to overfly a half-dozen towered
airports where you could find repair services and rental cars during that
time.

That's correct. However, there was nothing critical to repair. The
alternator tripped, that's all. The engine's still turning, the
weather's severe clear (albeit night), plenty of gas; I saw nothing of
any urgency. Even if the battery totally died, I could circle Danbury
and get a light gun. If Danbury closed (I think this was before PCL, I
don't remember) I could just come in... and if I needed runway lights, I
could divert to another airport if necessary. So far, no urgency, but
I'm keeping tabs on things. And so is ATC, even if it's just a primary
target.

You've already got a pax who's not feeling well. What were you going to do
if "a little queasy" suddenly turned worse and you had no working radio to
tell ATC that you needed priority handling at the nearest airport due to an
ill passenger?

"little queasy" was not a medical emergency. He was nervous and a
little airsick - no more. It went away quickly once he got some cool
air on him. (Had it been more, I would have alerted ATC, and if that
were no longer possible, I would have simply diverted.)

With one
of the pax not feeling well, I'd be thinking getting on the ground at the
first reasonable opportunity.

.... and then what?

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jose wrote:
snip

"little queasy" was not a medical emergency.

Never had a pax throw up on you, huh?

Never had a pax throw up on you, huh?

Not when I was unprepared.

I fly pipers now. I guess I like to live dangerously.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jose wrote:
That's correct. However, there was nothing critical to repair. The
alternator tripped, that's all. The engine's still turning, the
weather's severe clear (albeit night), plenty of gas; I saw nothing of
any urgency. Even if the battery totally died, I could circle Danbury
and get a light gun.

With a dead battery, you'd not only have no radio, but also no lights and
no transponder. What makes you think the tower would even have a clue you
were there?

With one of the pax not feeling well, I'd be thinking getting on the
ground at the first reasonable opportunity.

... and then what?

Get the airplane fixed and/or rent a car to get your pax home.

Roy Smith wrote:
Jose wrote:
That's correct. However, there was nothing critical to repair. The
alternator tripped, that's all. The engine's still turning, the
weather's severe clear (albeit night), plenty of gas; I saw nothing of
any urgency. Even if the battery totally died, I could circle Danbury
and get a light gun.

With a dead battery, you'd not only have no radio, but also no lights and
no transponder.

I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed that. I've only had
one complete avionics failure, and it of course affected the transponder
as well. We put it on 7600 in case everything came back on, but
thankfully the radios stayed on long enough that tower knew our
intentions...and long enough that we got yelled at for not having a
transponder on... :-)

With a dead battery, you'd not only have no radio, but also no lights and
no transponder. What makes you think the tower would even have a clue you
were there?

They were expecting me. I had already told ATC my intentions. I'd be a
primary target until I dropped below radar. I've landed without lights
before, it's no big deal. Had I not been able to get landing lights,
then I might have needed to divert to an airport that had them. But if
the failure were one that would drain the battery before I got to
Danbury (it was about twenty minutes away tops), it would likely have
drained no matter where I picked. I think the nearest airport was New
Haven or Bridgeport; DXR isn't much further.

I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed that.

I noticed that, at the time. In fact, since I turned off the lights and
the transponder, I was already in that state. I just had to be extra
vigilant.

... and then what?
Get the airplane fixed and/or rent a car to get your pax home.

I suppose. But yanno, everything is risk for benefit. The additional
risk of continuing with no alternator at night for about fifteen minutes
was one I judeged acceptable for the benefit of not having to deal with
hours of hassle.

It's not like a crash was imminent, or even likely.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Had I not been able to get landing lights

I meant runway lights.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

At first I read this as the master, but I think you meant the avionics
master. Did any radio lights come on? Did the transponder do its
transponder blikey thing?

It was the avionics master, yes. Everything but the audio panel came
back on - the radio were just fine, but with a dead audio panel there's
no way to use them!