Breakfast Fly-In, Sort Of
Discussing electrical system failure and what to do about it.
(Photo courtesy FAA Safety Briefing Sept.-Oct. 2019)
Last weekend, I made it to a meeting of the South Carolina Breakfast Club. Twice a month, this group meets at a SC airport for socialization and, of course, breakfast. Normally, church choir squelches any such Sunday morning activity, but COVID silenced the choir for a while. With that meeting barely an hour’s drive away in Ridgeland, and not knowing how (dis)organized the air traffic might be, I drove over. “Plenty of food,” said the announcement.
Murphy’s law was at work, though, again. When I got there an hour after published start time because I went to early church, the food was all gone, as was the food truck.
The ramp was full of older airplanes of the sort that I used to see all the time before I moved to airports where all the planes were hangared – Cessnas, Pipers, Beech, a very few homebuilts, a good assortment of GA. Inside these 50 year old airplanes, some older, some newer, the instrument panels were a hodge-podge of old and new instruments and avionics, retrofit seat covers in all manner of styles and levels of taste, missing headliners and side panels, you get the idea. Still, there was a certain amount of old-home week, walking the line.
Ridgeland also has a glider club and they had a Grob Acro two seater on display. I used to fly gliders way back when in California but a few years ago at Oshkosh, I did a pilot report on the Pipistrel Virus (long story on the name, there) and then bought another two hours of flight time to get a self-launch endorsement on my glider license in the Virus.
The Virus SW (short wing) is an interesting flying machine, arguably the fastest aircraft you can fly without any medical certificate, cruising at 147 knots max. Two seats, high wing, side by side, with both flaps and speed brakes. My RV-9A does everything I need, not necessarily everything I want, but I like having the shade of a high wing in the summer. And the Virus is a slick looking bird as well. They’re way cool, if a bit pricey compared to homebuilts.
I’m unlikely to fly gliders again because my surgically augmented spine would probably not like the jouncey takeoffs and landings, and I don’t know about thermal. But the Virus comes with either tailwheel or tricycle gear, just like a “real” airplane. I think it would be a cool way to go flying, with better sight seeing than the low wing RV-9A.
One of the programs that EAA has started is VMC and IMC clubs where there can be discussions on various topics. My Chapter, EA 1514, has an excellent series, thanks to Tom Huff, our moderator. Last night’s topic was electrical system failure and what to do about it.
Hmm. I started thinking about electrical problems I’ve seen in 3,600 hours of flight time:
1. C182 alternator belt failure, VMC, 45 minutes from destination, 1974 or so.
2. C175, voltage regulator failure, VMC, landed short rather than cross Lake Michigan NORDO. Had paper charts.
3. C175, maybe the same trip, voltage regulator failure. Had paper charts. Long stay in a small town with nothing but nothing to do. Nothing!
4. C175, smoke in the cockpit from a dying electrical switch. Copilot, also a CFII, instantly turned off the master. Night, VFR, landed no electrical. I think that the runway lights had already been clicked on. Flew home next day, flight of 2, NORDO. Used battery only for starting.
5. C175, alternator belt failure during run-up with smoke. Shut down, inspected the plane, used battery for starting engine, shut down electricals, taxied back in. Possible loose alternator, don’t recall.
6. RV-9A, alternator tripped with landing lights on in daytime. Turned off lights, reset CB.
7. RV-9A, don’t recall why but dying battery in flight after radio shop ran the battery down. Alternator not charging… VFR flight following, no paper charts, didn’t handle it all that well.
So the question is, what should I do if I get a low-voltage or high-voltage warning in flight, since the RV-9A has no manuals? One checklist shown last night said that in case of high voltage, turn the alternator off, check that the circuit breaker is in, then turn the alternator back on. See the problem? You check that it’s in but if it’s out, then what? The checklist only says to check it. The rest of the information is in the notes but there’s no reference in the checklist. There are reasons that some of us don’t take checklists at face value. And of course, the pilot needs to be aware that this is the high voltage checklist, not the low voltage checklist.
So what does this mean for the RV-9A? Get some POH for other airplanes and figure out what will make sense. Also, make a habit of keeping the handheld GPS charged up and in the airplane on every flight. Yes, I can use ForeFlight on the iPhone, but the Garmin aera 660 is much more usable. In fact, I have successfully used it as emergency guidance for getting to an airport in simulated IFR. The geo-referenced approach plates made all the difference. Would certainly not want to do it that way unless I absolutely had to, but it’s good to have that emergency capability in case of total electrical failure.
There have been online discussions about electrical failures as well. My recommendation is to also have the elevator trim on the emergency bus…
Had the second Pfizer COVID19 shot a few days ago. My symptoms were mild, about the same as a flu shot. I did comply with the FAA’s recommended 48 hour no fly, easy to do when the weather is miserable IFR. Some folks have had more reaction to the Pfizer vaccine than I did, but it also appears that reaction to the Moderna vaccine can be significantly worse. In any case, COVID has so many inconsistencies that it’s not worth playing games with symptoms. Plan on a few days off after the vaccine, especially after the second shot.
