I landed out

[luvflyin]

I think all of the Class D towers around Minneapolis have a repeater screen from Minneapolis Approach control radar...a D-BRITE, IIRC. Maybe @Timbeck2 or someone can expound on its capabilities with regard to the 7600 squawk.

Not 100% sure about KANE, but I know KFCM and KSTP towers have it.

Of course, the best answer is a visit to the tower if they still allow it.

I've worked at 6 Towers. 3 had Radar. 2 were BRITE feeds from an Approach Control located elsewhere and one was Downstairs, it was a combined Tower/Approach Facility. They all would display hijack, nordo and emergency squawks. I doubt very much if that has changed. At towers without Radar it would be unheard of for a Radar facility, Center or Approach, to not call the Tower and tell them a Nordo was coming their way.

 

[steingar]

Bit of an update. My attempt to score a hangar where the aircraft is has failed. There are storms forecast for the weekend, I'm not sticking around for them. I am going to my hangar this evening and meeting a friend there. We'll drive to where the aircraft is. There may be an empty hangar there, and if so I'll put the aircraft in it and leave it. If not, I'll call the tower at my home airport, tell them the score, set the handheld to the correct frequency, and get it back home. I'd rather deal with balky radios than thunderstorms.

 

[Greg Bockelman]

I tell him about my plight, and he offers to fly me back to my home base (they're based there as well, in a hangar near mine).

I take him up on it. I hate hate hate leaving my nice aircraft tied down at a strange airport, but with the way my comms are I'll have a tough time getting back to my home drome.

It’s kind of hard to make the decision to leave an airplane at a field other than your home airport. I applaud your decision to do so.

A tool you could have used to get your airplane home would have been to go as a flight of two with the 172 as the lead plane. You don’t have to fly tight formation to do that and you could fly a normal in trail pattern when you got to your airport.

Of course, both of you would have to be comfortable with it, but it really isn’t difficult to do.

 

[RyanShort1]

There IS an alternative that I used to use when I was flying the Taylorcraft. Make a flight plan, get it tight, get the tower's phone number and give them a call. Tell them you are NORDO, want to bring the plane back, and tell them what time you plan to be over a landmark on the edge of the surface area and have your lights on (My Taylorcraft didn't have lights) - and then use all that them-thar booklearnin about Light Signals to get them to give you a green light to land and taxi your plane home. Take off with a few minutes to spare and BE AT THAT LANDMARK when you tell them you'll be there and watch for the light gun.

 

[MtnMarcus]

I'm based at a local Delta (a rather busy one) and have been having radio troubles for some time. .

I will never understand why people put issues as important as this off.....

 

[luvflyin]

Bit of an update. My attempt to score a hangar where the aircraft is has failed. There are storms forecast for the weekend, I'm not sticking around for them. I am going to my hangar this evening and meeting a friend there. We'll drive to where the aircraft is. There may be an empty hangar there, and if so I'll put the aircraft in it and leave it. If not, I'll call the tower at my home airport, tell them the score, set the handheld to the correct frequency, and get it back home. I'd rather deal with balky radios than thunderstorms.

Sounds like a plan. Even if the handheld gives you problems, it shouldn’t be a problem. They’ll be waiting for you, light gun in hand. Just try to stick kinda closely to the times you give them for ETA.

 

[Clip4]

I'm based at a local Delta (a rather busy one) and have been having radio troubles for some time. Aircraft is scheduled to go back to the avionics shop next week. I thought I'd take her up last night to shake out some cobwebs, haven't flown since Oshkosh.

I've mostly been relying on my number 2 comm, comm 1 has been useless for some while. I used it to talk to ground, scratchy but doable. Used it to talk to tower. Got going. Once airborne I couldn't hear tower at all. This is new, usually I can hear fine but can't transmit.

I was going to fly to a couple local strips and do a couple landings, my first one was so bad I turned it into a touch and go after the second bounce (Mooney pilots will know what I mean, I think). Decided I was done for the night, time to get back home. Called my home tower 10 miles out, no problem.

I go to report the midfield downwind and I can't hear a thing from tower. Comm2 is fragged, comm1 is now useless. I have my handheld out, start playing with it when a little voice in my head reminds me that low and slow on the downwind is no place to play with radios.

I decide to get predictable and continue my down wind as I suck up the gear and flaps. I fly to a local airport to:

1) land
2) try and sort out the aircraft
3) try and sort myself out

Radio problems are stressful, especially in controlled airspace. They can get the better of you. Time to land, cool down, and figure things out.

So I land, far better than my last one, which isn't saying much. I park the aircraft and walk over to the FBO, where a young man is sitting on a bench. He's a CFI waiting for his student, who's doing his first solo landings, I saw him as I was coming in. I tell him about my plight, and he offers to fly me back to my home base (they're based there as well, in a hangar near mine).

I take him up on it. I hate hate hate leaving my nice aircraft tied down at a strange airport, but with the way my comms are I'll have a tough time getting back to my home drome. Easy enough to get it and fly to where they'll finally be fixed (hopefully, I honestly don't hold out high hopes).

First time I've left an aircraft in a very, very long while.

And now maybe you know why
91.213 Inoperative instruments and equipment.
(a) Except as provided in paragraph (d) of this section, no person may take off an aircraft with inoperative instruments or equipment installed unless the following conditions are met:

 

[steingar]

I will never understand why people put issues as important as this off.....

Because I had to wait for the monkey that installed this stuff to free up some time to fix it. Actually, he could have done it last month, but then I’d have had to miss the Show, which was a non starter. Besides, airplanes fly just fine without radios.

The denoument of all this was I did as described earlier. I called my tower, told them the score, and flew back last night. I was able to radio 10 miles out to let them know I was coming in, and they cleared me to land from there. It was a somewhat harrowing flight, since it was the first to my home airport at night. Of course my radios stopped working as I approached the airport, but I was cleared to land. I couldn’t see a damn thing in the cockpit, boy is my lighting bad. I’m going to have to address that. My landing light switch is crap, I have to hold it to keep the blame thing on (I asked my mechanic to address this issue at annual, but I think he forgot) so I landed without it. The last time I landed that badly I struck the prop. Exited the runway on another runway, hey it’s what I had. Never did see a light gun signal.

I called the tower after shutting down to make certain everything was OK, they were just glad I made it back safely. This will not stand. I’ll have to grab my CFI and do some nighttime work, get back into the swing of it. And I think I’m going to elevate the priority of some cockpit lighting on my list of things to do.

 

[Jim_CAK]

And I think I’m going to elevate the priority of some cockpit lighting on my list of things to do.

Steingar - we had the light rings installed between the panel and the non-backlit instruments. As we upgraded or repaired DG, HI and attitude indicator we bought backlit instruments. The light rings do make a big difference.

 

[Silvaire]

My handheld has 18 buttons, 15 of which have sub-functions. I swear every time I pick it up I end up asking myself "why is it doing that?" LoL

 

[steingar]

Steingar - we had the light rings installed between the panel and the non-backlit instruments. As we upgraded or repaired DG, HI and attitude indicator we bought backlit instruments. The light rings do make a big difference.

Yeah. That’s what I have in mind. Might be sooner, because I suspect I may be doing some of my IFR training I’m the dark

 

[PaulS]

Man, you need to get that plane fixed. Glad you made it back ok.

 

[luvflyin]

Because I had to wait for the monkey that installed this stuff to free up some time to fix it. Actually, he could have done it last month, but then I’d have had to miss the Show, which was a non starter. Besides, airplanes fly just fine without radios.

The denoument of all this was I did as described earlier. I called my tower, told them the score, and flew back last night. I was able to radio 10 miles out to let them know I was coming in, and they cleared me to land from there. It was a somewhat harrowing flight, since it was the first to my home airport at night. Of course my radios stopped working as I approached the airport, but I was cleared to land. I couldn’t see a damn thing in the cockpit, boy is my lighting bad. I’m going to have to address that. My landing light switch is crap, I have to hold it to keep the blame thing on (I asked my mechanic to address this issue at annual, but I think he forgot) so I landed without it. The last time I landed that badly I struck the prop. Exited the runway on another runway, hey it’s what I had. Never did see a light gun signal.

I called the tower after shutting down to make certain everything was OK, they were just glad I made it back safely. This will not stand. I’ll have to grab my CFI and do some nighttime work, get back into the swing of it. And I think I’m going to elevate the priority of some cockpit lighting on my list of things to do.

Glad to hear it all turned out ok. Have fun with your CFI getting night familiar and hope your lighting upgrades won’t be to many AMU’s

 

[danhagan]

They still have light signals, do they not?

See below:

Squawk 7600, flash your landing light, wag your wings. The tower will get the message and then say oh boy, I get to use the light gun. Then they go dust it off and review the little placard on the back...let's see, is it a steady green or a flashing green or is it an alternating red and green followed by a steady green...?

Make the controller's day. He may think that he saved your life.

Back when I was training in 2005-2006, we ran out of things to practice and were at the Class C, so the CFI and I requested light gun simulation and the controllers were absolutely fighting one another to give it a go. Problem was that the cab has sun-shades so EVERY flash looked white. They asked us to keep flying closer to the cab after each TNG until we were REALLY in tight (this was mid-day noon dead as a door nail in summer - very bright here in the desert) ... CFI's out there, this was one of the funnest flights ever (even though the light gun simulation didn't really work out) ... controllers kept us there at least an hour in the pattern trying different things (even different areas of the cab) ... completed the flight at the home drone with doors and trim to low approach - CFI failed elevators, ailerons and rudder (did use the yoke to flare, we weren't that crazy).

 

[Timbeck2]

That's funny, especially when several references say "Do NOT shine the light gun through shades." unless they were doing a little experiment on their own.

 

[danhagan]

That's funny, especially when several references say "Do NOT shine the light gun through shades." unless they were doing a little experiment on their own.

They ended up raising them, but I think the cab windows are/were tinted as there was no improvement. Probably easier at night, but mid day = no way.

 

[Mtns2Skies]

I will never understand why people put issues as important as this off.....

Because avionics shops are booking a year in advance. It's not so much as "put off" as much as "eagerly awaiting with my 1000 closest pilot friends for a slot."

 

[1RTK1]

Because I had to wait for the monkey that installed this stuff to free up some time to fix it. Actually, he could have done it last month, but then I’d have had to miss the Show, which was a non starter. Besides, airplanes fly just fine without radios.

The denoument of all this was I did as described earlier. I called my tower, told them the score, and flew back last night. I was able to radio 10 miles out to let them know I was coming in, and they cleared me to land from there. It was a somewhat harrowing flight, since it was the first to my home airport at night. Of course my radios stopped working as I approached the airport, but I was cleared to land. I couldn’t see a damn thing in the cockpit, boy is my lighting bad. I’m going to have to address that. My landing light switch is crap, I have to hold it to keep the blame thing on (I asked my mechanic to address this issue at annual, but I think he forgot) so I landed without it. The last time I landed that badly I struck the prop. Exited the runway on another runway, hey it’s what I had. Never did see a light gun signal.

I called the tower after shutting down to make certain everything was OK, they were just glad I made it back safely. This will not stand. I’ll have to grab my CFI and do some nighttime work, get back into the swing of it. And I think I’m going to elevate the priority of some cockpit lighting on my list of things to do.

Also, get yourself one of those head lamps, they work great.

 

[rwellner98]

The proper way to use a handheld is to have it out, on, and set before you hit the landing pattern. I had two of the three. I think I had it set to the wrong frequency, easy to do with old eyes and evening light. Here's the thing. Radio worked fine 10 miles out. Had it not, I'd have had the handheld out and would have been calling already. I didn't realize I had a problem unit I was midfield on my downwind. I'm sorry, but that just isn't the place to screw with your handheld, it either works or you go elsewhere (or get your light gun signals).

Totally agree that it's not the place to "screw" with your radio. For that reason it is one of three things[1] that I always have at arms length and know how to use by touch. In fact, by coincidence, it is sitting next to me know as I use it to monitor nearby traffic. It's not interesting traffic, but the simple act of using it occasionally (and intentionally doing so by touch) reinforces the memory of how the thing works. Maybe something to add to your behavioral patterns as well. *shrugs*

[1] The other two are batteries for the ANR and the PLB. The batteries are in a pouch in my flight bag that I can find by touch and there are never expired batteries in that pouch. The dead ones go in the flight bag for later disposal. The PLB is a one time use device, so I can't realistically learn how to operate it by touch, but at least it's always in the same place so it can be grabbed easily by memory.