Total electrical failure - (hypothetical)

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.

Replace the fuse on the avionics bus.


"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? 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.

If your plane goes dark, and the batteries in your GPS go dark as well,
then you have a bad situation. Presumably you still have altimeter,
ASI, clock, compass, attitude indicator, and maybe heading indicator,
so you can still fly a heading and an altitude and, with an estimate of
wind, dead reckon to somewhere.

If you know where VFR is, then climb to OROCA and head there.
If you know where you can make a letdown to VFR - say by flying out
over water - dead reckon your way there and make the letdown.

Next time, be sure to check the batteries in your GPS (and, if you
don't have a reasonable redundant power system in your airplane, which
most light singles don't) consider carrying a spare GPS or at least
spare batteries.

To give you an idea of how I manage this - I fly a twin with an
electric system that will survive any point failure short of a bus
fault to ground, AND I have a portable GPS with batteies mounted on the
yoke and turned on. Widespread low IMC makes the GPS a no-go item.
Every year, I practice shooting an approach with just the GPS and no
other navaids.

Just something to think about.

Michael

complete electrical failure in IMC

"Finding VFR" is going to be difficult (with no comm) unless you noted
it during flight planning. So thinking through this should help you
resolve to, prior to departure IMC,

A) Know which direction or in which region the best conditions exist,
i.e. "which direction do I head if things really go bad"

B) Have good batteries in your handheld GPS, and fresh spare batteries
in your flight bag.

My handheld GPS is just a cheap hiker's GEKO ($100), but I usually turn
it on and throw it on the dash to record my flight track. But for IMC
flight, in addition to the battery check, I always have an airport
waypoint set as the navigation destination. I usually choose the
departure or destination airport-- one that I'm familiar with the
approaches or at least have reviewed them and have them out on my
clipboard. The nav page of the Geko is set to display track, desired
track, distance, and altitude. I must admit that I haven't yet
simulated such a scenario yet, but its on my "training todo list". I'm
thinking it will work ok in a daylight scenario, even if I have to hold
it in my hand. But a nighttime scenario might be pretty dicey trying
to manage the flashlight(s) and handheld gps. A passenger could help
for that though.

I don't even own a handheld tranceiver. My thinking is that I
shouldn't even consider the distraction of communicating in this
scenario. Would like to hear other opinions though...

Cheers,
John Clonts
Temple, Texas
N7NZ

"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? 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.


You answered your own question. If the only option is heading for VMC then
head for VMC. Perhaps ATC will have a good primary target and be able to
keep other IFR aircraft away, but if they don't there's nothing you can do
about it.

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

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


Reaching OROCA will probably require a descent.

I have had a total electrical failure. It was night, but fortunately
not IMC.

That experience got me to rethink my IFR cockpit mgmt techniques.
Having a GPS and handheld radio are not enough. The GPS needs to be
turned on and tracking sats. The handheld needs to be easily
accessible (think map pocket) vs. in a flight bag in the backseat.
Jacks to easily plug the headset to the handheld COM are a must.

Also handheld COMs have terrible transmission/reception due to their
small antenna. Expect no more than a few miles. Many people put an
antenna splitter off the main COM antenna to an empty cable
specifically to be connected to the handheld in this event.

-Nathan



On 17 Mar 2005 07:05:22 -0800, "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.

Steven P. McNicoll wrote:

"paul kgyy" wrote in message
oups.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? 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.


You answered your own question. If the only option is heading for VMC then
head for VMC. Perhaps ATC will have a good primary target and be able to
keep other IFR aircraft away, but if they don't there's nothing you can do
about it.

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.

"John Clonts" wrote in
oups.com:

But a nighttime scenario might be pretty dicey trying
to manage the flashlight(s) and handheld gps. A passenger could help
for that though.

If you're going to fly IFR at night, you need to give some thought to
your setup. The passenger doesn't automatically know what you want to
look at. I use a cheap LED headlight I bought at WalMart, which comes
with white and red LEDs. I changed the red LED to green, because red is
problematic with many colors, and with the LCD computer we use. The
white instrument lights have already done away with my night vision
anyway, but the green doesn't distract my copilot as much, and lets me
see enough. I used to use a liplight, a green LED mounted on my
microphone, but have abandoned it for the headlight. It's usually turned
off, but if I need it, it's ready to go, and always illuminates what I
look at. I use it for starting, etc, before the instrument lights start
working, and for doing paperwork, etc. I fly almost exclusively at
night, and that has made me think a lot about how to organize and
illuminate things. We have separate electrical busses, two engines, etc,
so I don't worry that much about electrical failure. In a piston single,
it's much, much more likely, and the pilot needs to be prepared for it.

--
Regards,

Stan

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." B. Franklin

Thanks to everybody. I do in fact carry portable gps and have it
operational in flight, portable comm with external antenna and
headphone adaptor, and extra batteries. Since my hope port KGYY is on
the border of Lake Michigan, if I'm near the lake and need VFR one
option is to stay clear of the STARs and DPs and scud run if I can
expect 1000 feet or so.

Bad events often don't come in groups of 1.