First flight with my wife and we had an emergency landing

@SixPapaCharlie ... Because of this, do you think Even might be talked into a pinch hitter course that's specific go your new airplane?

Sorta like what @FlyingMonkey and his wife did with Jason Miller?
 
AggieMike88 said:
@SixPapaCharlie ... Because of this, do you think Even might be talked into a pinch hitter course that's specific go your new airplane?

Sorta like what @FlyingMonkey and his wife did with Jason Miller?
Click to expand...

No. She has no interest. I feed her little tiny bits of information from time to time so that if I die she can get the plane kind of down kind of softly but she wouldn't ever take a course
 
Glad it worked out well! If I could carry just one backup thing in my flight back, it would be a handheld radio. Daytime anyway. Because I'm not going to get lost in the daytime, and I'm much more concerned about traffic in the pattern than out in the middle of wherever. You don't need a radio to fly in the pattern at an uncontrolled field, I've done it plenty of times, but having a handheld radio that you can plug into a headset makes it much more pleasant, and a bit less spooky to me.
 
only time I lost alternator/battery was as a low timer at night. it was a big fat nothingburger.
 
Indeed a strange place to put an alternator switch. Last month I lost the alternator at night in the Cherokee 180. Was in cruise and started to see the ammeter flicker before discharging. Had plenty of battery power to make it back to base, so it wasn’t a big deal whatsoever. Sounds like you handled your situation well!
 
Ye old spam cans are [relative] human factor nightmares. BE-35s win the prize on that front of course. You're wise to move that switch out of range of your knees/legs. What a boneheaded layout. And people have the temerity of casting aspersions on EAB panels lol.
 
eman1200 said:
only time I lost alternator/battery was as a low timer at night. it was a big fat nothingburger.
Click to expand...
Only lost mine once after 3 hours of hard ifr, hand flying trying to find a divert in the bumps. JPI alerted right away but not in a way my pax would know :). That was not amusing but knew I would be on the ground before the battery gave out. Bonus, my divert wasn’t reporting a ceiling. Root cause, belt was just loose enough it started slipping from the rain.

No split master on my plane and have never seen a separate switch for the alternator. Breaker, yes.

Glad you got it down softly with the gear down.
 
masloki said:
Only lost mine once after 3 hours of hard ifr, hand flying trying to find a divert in the bumps. JPI alerted right away but not in a way my pax would know :). That was not amusing but knew I would be on the ground before the battery gave out. Bonus, my divert wasn’t reporting a ceiling. Root cause, belt was just loose enough it started slipping from the rain.

No split master on my plane and have never seen a separate switch for the alternator. Breaker, yes.

Glad you got it down softly with the gear down.
Click to expand...

actually this happened in a cherokee so one less thing to worry about
 
dmspilot said: ↑
You might want to rename that placard to something slightly different, as it implies the alternator is inoperative permanently.
Hahahaha.
You're not wrong.


As an A&P in training, I hesitate to put an INOP placard around anything that actually works. ALT WARN might be better wording.
 
Sorry in advance for the rant, but this is one thing that's always severely irked me about many planes we fly; the nonsensical button/switchology varies wildly across each individual bugsmasher, even in the same model. I can get used to differences in the instrument locations, but it's beyond frustrating having switches randomly strewn about the panel, out of line-of-sight, poorly labeled, and in no discernable pattern.

Spending thousands converting to an alternator, then placing one of the most important toggle switches in the plane in an empty hidden breaker hole? That just oozes lazy hack work to me and, as made clear by your post, can certainly create potentially dangerous/deadly situations. What thankfully ended up being a facepalm moment could have ended much differently if you lost the alt in IMC, not knowing it was just a switch.

I totally get that these birds were made 60 years ago and most have had numerous alterations, additions, modernizations, etc since then, but it seems like zero effort is often made to keep any semblance of intuitive convention. New equipment gets installed but squeezed in between old, obsolete, inop systems and the wiring rat's nests therein. Hell, I spend most of a Hobbs hour trying to locate the Avionics Master switch in each Sundowner in my school's fleet. Some are on the pilot side, some in the center stack, a couple by the passenger door. Not to mention the nighttime fun of scanning/feeling through switches with faded labels near my knees, shadowed from the red light, going "nope that's the landing light, nope that's the nonexistent autopilot, that's the strobes, ah THERE'S the fuel pump, right there by the dome light of course."

I'm not saying we all need fancy lighted Cirrus switch panels, but a marginal bit of extra work goes a long way in making the plane much more intuitive, safe, and pleasant to operate. I'd be ****ed if I spend thousands on an equipment upgrade in my truck, and the mechanic made me reach into the cabin fuse box under the steering wheel while driving looking for the switch. Or if an electrician installed a light fixture in my living room, ran all the wiring, but put the switch in the basement next to the breaker panel because it was easier.

ANYWHO....at any rate, I'm glad it ended well. And lots of kudos, for keeping a level flying head, and also calmly handling it like a professional in front of your passenger.
 
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drummer4468 said:
Sorry in advance for the rant, but this is one thing that's always severely irked me about many planes we fly; the nonsensical button/switchology varies wildly across each individual bugsmasher, even in the same model. I can get used to differences in the instrument locations, but it's beyond frustrating having switches randomly strewn about the panel, out of line-of-sight, poorly labeled, and in no discernable pattern.

Spending thousands converting to an alternator, then placing one of the most important toggle switches in the plane in an empty hidden breaker hole? That just oozes lazy hack work to me and, as made clear by your post, can certainly create potentially dangerous/deadly situations. What thankfully ended up being a facepalm moment could have ended much differently if you lost the alt in IMC, not knowing it was just a switch.

I totally get that these birds were made 60 years ago and most have had numerous alterations, additions, modernizations, etc since then, but it seems like zero effort is often made to keep any semblance of intuitive convention. New equipment gets installed but squeezed in between old, obsolete, inop systems and the wiring rat's nests therein. Hell, I spend most of a Hobbs hour trying to locate the Avionics Master switch in each Sundowner in my school's fleet. Some are on the pilot side, some in the center stack, a couple by the passenger door. Not to mention the nighttime fun of scanning/feeling through switches with faded labels near my knees, shadowed from the red light, going "nope that's the landing light, nope that's the nonexistent autopilot, that's the strobes, ah THERE'S the fuel pump, right there by the dome light of course."

I'm not saying we all need fancy lighted Cirrus switch panels, but a marginal bit of extra work goes a long way in making the plane much more intuitive, safe, and pleasant to operate. I'd be ****ed if I spend thousands on an equipment upgrade in my truck, and the mechanic made me reach into the cabin fuse box under the steering wheel while driving looking for the switch. Or if an electrician installed a light fixture in my living room, ran all the wiring, but put the switch in the basement next to the breaker panel because it was easier.

ANYWHO....at any rate, I'm glad it ended well. And lots of kudos, for keeping a level flying head, and also calmly handling it like a professional in front of your passenger.
Click to expand...

I am convinced that many things are designed by youngish engineers who have never actually used the product in real life.
 
I didn't see it mentioned in the comments but do you own a handheld radio? They are dead weight in the flight bag 99.9995% of the time but they do come in handy every once in a blue moon.
 
Rushie said:
I am convinced that many things are designed by youngish engineers who have never actually used the product in real life.
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In my engineering career many of us, young and old, worked on things we never actually used. Some of us worked on things most hoped would never be used.

Nauga,
and someone else's soda straw
 
As for the nav light switch dimming the gear down light thing, Comanchegear has a nifty kit that replaces the stock light with a mil spec light with an aperture to set the brightness how you want it without it dimming down with nav lights. Does away with the stock nonsense.
 
nauga said:
In my engineering career many of us, young and old, worked on things we never actually used. Some of us worked on things most hoped would never be used.

Nauga,
and someone else's soda straw
Click to expand...

I’m not dissing engineers, I r one. Used to be a young one. :) I designed stuff I didn’t use, but consulted extensively with the people who did. I also realize that cost and regulation considerations affect design. Nevertheless, I stand by my comment. The same is also true of software programmers. Not sure anybody at Microsoft actually uses Windows.
 
nauga said:
In my engineering career many of us, young and old, worked on things we never actually used. Some of us worked on things most hoped would never be used.

Nauga,
and someone else's soda straw
Click to expand...


Quite true. I have not yet had the opportunity to use a WMD, for example. But I’m still hoping.
 
Rushie said:
I am convinced that many things are designed by youngish engineers who have never actually used the product in real life.
Click to expand...


Probably true, especially in the 50 year old planes many of us fly. But the panels have had so many alterations over the years that engineering involvement ended long ago. A&Ps put switches and breakers in places convenient to them, not the pilot. My panel has several randomly located breakers, and unused fuses.
 
Rushie said:
I am convinced that many things are designed by youngish engineers who have never actually used the product in real life.
Click to expand...
I have seen this to appear to be true in very many cases....but I suspect that some or many of these cases are not engineers, but more like designers...and that's not to mean that engineers must be "educated". I've worked with many tradesmen (millwrights, welders, etc.) that were much more capable and creative in designing things that almost any engineer would ever be. We all have our wheelhouse....

I was talking to a friend just yesterday about this topic. He's an engineer that came up through the design ranks in his industry, not through college...and I'm college edgumicated. His perspective is that so many engineers don't have common sense. My perspective is more about not having practical knowledge. He said more or less in an effort to not be insulting to me, that I'm different because I know how to "turn a wrench". I saw this even when I was in college....some good friends that were getting very good grades had zero basic knowledge of things that I took for granted that everyone with even just half an eye towards anything technical would know....things I learned when I was like 12 years old!....such as what the clutch pedal does in a car, or how the plumbing system in a house works.

A real world example of designers not using the product.....is the RV industry. I came to this conclusion when we owned our first RV, a pop-up camping trailer. I see it still in our motorhome and lots of other RV's. There are things that no sane person that has RV'ed more than 2-3 nights would ever do. I really doubt that industry is using engineers to design these things.... I recon that they are much more likely to be drafters/designers without even a drafting education....AND they are being steered by the bean counters and marketing folks to boot!

I agree with drummer4468 in that I am severely irked by the same things especially in older aircraft!
 
Brad W said:
A real world example of designers not using the product.....is the RV industry. I came to this conclusion when we owned our first RV, a pop-up camping trailer. I see it still in our motorhome and lots of other RV's. There are things that no sane person that has RV'ed more than 2-3 nights would ever do. I really doubt that industry is using engineers to design these things.... I recon that they are much more likely to be drafters/designers without even a drafting education....AND they are being steered by the bean counters and marketing folks to boot!
!
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they designed something that you bought. They succeeded in their goal.
 
pan-pan
/ˈpanpan/

noun
  1. an international radio distress signal, of less urgency than a mayday signal. Good job
 
Salty said:
they designed something that you bought. They succeeded in their goal.
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ha ha...yeah. You've got me there! But I'll probably never buy another from either of these companies....so maybe their goal setters should re-evaluate
 
I was forunate enough to graduate engineering as both an ME and journeyman machinist (my co-op job). When I went to work, I was astounded to find several of the “engineers” couldn’t read a blueprint.

With the growth of CAM/CAD, I fear this will this will continue, but I’m just a grumpy old fart.

In any event, nice work BrYan.

Cheers
 
I just noticed another thing in your panel picture.... the throttle / prop / mixture knobs are in the wrong order ;)
Not an issue for you since it's your plane and you're used to it already. That sounds pretty good I'll bet...YOUR plane!
Regardless, I agree with an earlier poster. I also like that flat top look of the Comanche, sorry I forgot who to give credit to for saying that first. Looking forward to seeing it on youtube!
 
Sam D said:
For your USB charger in the cigarette lighter, you might want to consider something like this to confirm the battery is charging as part of your runup procedures (of course until you get a full glass panel that includes this). And by the way, get rid of all that bright red string around your yoke -- that can be a hazard.
s-l400.jpg
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do you have an STC for that?
 
X3 Skier said:
I was forunate enough to graduate engineering as both an ME and journeyman machinist (my co-op job). When I went to work, I was astounded to find several of the “engineers” couldn’t read a blueprint.

With the growth of CAM/CAD, I fear this will this will continue, but I’m just a grumpy old fart.

In any event, nice work BrYan.

Cheers
Click to expand...

That's a great mix to combine ME and machinist work....something I wish I had learned more about.
Yep, CAD is wonderful when it comes to revision work, and great for things like 3-d modeling, but it absolutely demands poor drafting practices and also leads to a lot more errors. After 3 years of drafting in high school, I earned an AA degree in Drafting and Design before earning my BSME. That was when CAD was in it's infancy. High school was 100% paper, pencil, and pen. AA was probably 80% paper pencil and pen. The University level engineering programs that I'm familiar with only included the tiniest amount of drafting schooling...like maybe one class or so... And more recently my career has taken me to a more architectural focus...and given that their job is so centered around drawing and design I was shocked to learn how little formal drafting training Architects get. I think it's about a similar amount to what engineers get.
 
I know where there’s a very nice Tiger for sale, if you want to return to familiarity and security after this brush with death. I’d be happy to speak with Eren about it.

No trades.
 
My old Chairman was flying his 182 home with passengers when he lost electrical power. He actually had one of the pax fly the aircraft while he fished in back for his handheld, since he was flying into a delta.
 
Do people actually keep a handheld charged and carry it on every flight? Seems like a real PITA when there are plenty of ways to deal with NORDO safely.
 
Salty said:
Do people actually keep a handheld charged and carry it on every flight? Seems like a real PITA when there are plenty of ways to deal with NORDO safely.
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I bought a hand held and threw it in the back of the plane somewhere in 2006. I wonder if it's still there???
 
Salty said:
Do people actually keep a handheld charged and carry it on every flight? Seems like a real PITA when there are plenty of ways to deal with NORDO safely.
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Yep -although I only charge it once a month. I've even tested it in the plane.
 
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