jspilot
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jspilot
I'm sharing my story of a total electrical failure so that others can learn from it. Thankfully we made it back fine but it was an eventful flight for sure.
This morning I was taking a buddy of mine who's been flying as a passenger in small planes for most of his life, to Block Island ( KBID). It is an unbelievable morning with calm winds and clear skies and we were both excited to do this as we had not flown together yet. We got to the airport and all went well with the pre-flight. We started up my favorite rental plane, a Cessna 172-P that I have over 100 uneventful hours in and taxied out for departure. We did our run-up and again all went well and looked normal. We took off into smooth as glass air, climbed out and proceeded east from the departure airport without any sign that this flight would be very different from the hundreds of flights I've made up to this point.
On the climb out I contacted New York approach for flight following. I immediately got it and so far this flight could not be going better. We leveled off at 5,500 and settled in for the quick trip over to Block Island. About 30 miles into the flight, my passenger noticed the radio stack lights started to blink. I said " hmmm..that's never happened to me before." I immediately pressed to push to talk button to see if I could contact New York Approach control to see if they heard me. Before I could even get out a few words, the lights went dark and only flickered a little bit. I looked at my buddy and he at me and I immediately made the call to return to the airport. We made the turn back to the airport and had about 20 minutes to go until touch down. About 2 minutes after the radios blinked they completely shut off. I was unable to reach New York Approach and they me. I squawked 7600 thinking we had some type of a radio issue. I was thinking that if the radios went I was not comfortable landing at Block Island without being able to communicate. I had not yet thought I was having an electrical system failure. I then glanced at my fuel gauges and they were now reading next to nothing. I knew this had to be wrong because I checked visually the fuel before the flight and we were topped off. This had me concerned but I now knew this was not a simple radio issue.
As we got closer to the departure airport( which is non towered) I made a plan in my mind and made sure to communicate my plan to my buddy figuring his experience could come in handy. He remained calm throughout and we both surmised that something electrical must be going on here. We knew the radios were out, we knew the fuel gauges were wrong( although the thought of maybe they were not wrong was always in the back of my mind and I figured the flaps would no work either.) I explained the plan to him. I said,
"listen here's the deal, we are going back into a crowded, non-towered airport. I'm going to need your help looking for traffic because obviously they won't be able to hear us and we them and they are going to be expecting radio calls"--- At this point I could not even tune in the frequency for the airport to make any calls. I then continued "Also, we are staying high until we get close to the field because I don't know if these gauges are correct or not and if we are loosing fuel or running out somehow we need to glide in. Also we are not flying a standard pattern we are just going straight for the runway"
Confident we had a plan that made sense we a got close to the airport and began our decent. Of course there were planes in the pattern and my buddy pointed a few out. I saw them and saw a few he did not. We descended nicely and the engine kept purring along( what a relief that is.) We made an approach to the field and now I needed to slow the plane down. Knowing if this was an electrical issue the flaps would likely not work I planned for a flap-less landing. We were descending steeply still at about 100 knots so I widened out a bit and of course a plane on left base comes right in front of us! Now I'm worried because we are about a half mile from him, descending and going much faster than he is. I'm committed to landing this plane because I need to get on the ground. I level off and pull up on the yoke to slow down and begin doing some s turns, we really only did shallow ones because I was worried about an accidental stall now too! The plane in front of us touches down and at what felt like a snails pace continues down the runway as we now are on about a 1/2 mile final. My options are now limited because I don't want to go around not knowing exactly what is going on and with fuel gauges reading 0. I try the flaps thinking maybe we can get them to slow us down-- no luck they are not working because of the electrical system failure. Lucky for me I was able to get the plane slowed down and was doing 80 knots on final. I was praying the plane on the ground would get to the turn off before much longer and by the grace of God he did. As we were about a 1/4 mile away he exited and I now only concerned myself with getting onto the ground. I told my buddy to expect a long float( also communicating this helped remind me to expect the same too.) We went over the numbers at around 70 floated a bit and touched down super smooth! My buddy gives me a huge pat on the shoulder, says " way to go!" I said, "wow am I glad we are down!" We got off the runway and passed the stop short bars and just took a second to collect ourselves. I was relieved to have made it through the most significant event I've experienced in the 340 or so hours I have many in this exact plane. On the taxi in, we both were somewhat giddy to have made it through the ordeal and commented that we now have an amazing story to tell. I apologized for putting him through this and he said, " well we can laugh about it now and honestly that's all that matters." He then said, " it was not your fault." I knew this but I felt good knowing my buddy knew this was beyond my control.
We taxied in to parking and I went into the office and asked about what I needed to do with regards to ATC. The office guy was so sorry this happened, he felt terrible that we went through this and called his boss. His boss said to give NY TRACON a call. I called them up and said, "hey I'm the pilot of xxxxxxx we were just talking to you and we had a total electrical failure and the radios went. I squawked 7600 and just wanted you to know we are back safely." He said, " ok great I'm very relieved you made it. We lost total contact and you were no longer even a blip out there and we never saw your 7600. We had several planes try to contact you, we tried to contact you several times and obviously you could not hear us. Thanks for letting us know and we are glad you are ok." I asked if I needed to fill out a form or anything and he said "nope no problem."
With the entire ordeal now resolved I began to start to think about what just happened. The mechanic came out and confirmed it was a total electrical failure. He asked if I had checked the circuit breaker( I had not-- should have) and their was a circuit popped out. I turned the master back on and the avionics switch back on and the radios came back to life. I then added the lights and then sure enough, the radios went dark again. From this experience I now know I should have shut off the lights and maybe that would have allowed me to save the radios. I asked the mechanic this and he said " maybe but honestly the radio probably would have gone soon too." I also never ran an emergency checklist for alternator failure. Maybe I should have but I honestly did not know if that was it until the flaps did not work. I really just focused on getting back to the airport throughout this entire experience.
I'm glad to be able to share this story with you all. I know an electrical failure is not a terrible thing to happen but anything that goes wrong on a airplane creates an issue. I learned some things from this and I'm proud of myself for staying calm, properly executing a plan and for the successful outcome. Thanks for reading this long post and I hope some people get something useful out of it!
This morning I was taking a buddy of mine who's been flying as a passenger in small planes for most of his life, to Block Island ( KBID). It is an unbelievable morning with calm winds and clear skies and we were both excited to do this as we had not flown together yet. We got to the airport and all went well with the pre-flight. We started up my favorite rental plane, a Cessna 172-P that I have over 100 uneventful hours in and taxied out for departure. We did our run-up and again all went well and looked normal. We took off into smooth as glass air, climbed out and proceeded east from the departure airport without any sign that this flight would be very different from the hundreds of flights I've made up to this point.
On the climb out I contacted New York approach for flight following. I immediately got it and so far this flight could not be going better. We leveled off at 5,500 and settled in for the quick trip over to Block Island. About 30 miles into the flight, my passenger noticed the radio stack lights started to blink. I said " hmmm..that's never happened to me before." I immediately pressed to push to talk button to see if I could contact New York Approach control to see if they heard me. Before I could even get out a few words, the lights went dark and only flickered a little bit. I looked at my buddy and he at me and I immediately made the call to return to the airport. We made the turn back to the airport and had about 20 minutes to go until touch down. About 2 minutes after the radios blinked they completely shut off. I was unable to reach New York Approach and they me. I squawked 7600 thinking we had some type of a radio issue. I was thinking that if the radios went I was not comfortable landing at Block Island without being able to communicate. I had not yet thought I was having an electrical system failure. I then glanced at my fuel gauges and they were now reading next to nothing. I knew this had to be wrong because I checked visually the fuel before the flight and we were topped off. This had me concerned but I now knew this was not a simple radio issue.
As we got closer to the departure airport( which is non towered) I made a plan in my mind and made sure to communicate my plan to my buddy figuring his experience could come in handy. He remained calm throughout and we both surmised that something electrical must be going on here. We knew the radios were out, we knew the fuel gauges were wrong( although the thought of maybe they were not wrong was always in the back of my mind and I figured the flaps would no work either.) I explained the plan to him. I said,
"listen here's the deal, we are going back into a crowded, non-towered airport. I'm going to need your help looking for traffic because obviously they won't be able to hear us and we them and they are going to be expecting radio calls"--- At this point I could not even tune in the frequency for the airport to make any calls. I then continued "Also, we are staying high until we get close to the field because I don't know if these gauges are correct or not and if we are loosing fuel or running out somehow we need to glide in. Also we are not flying a standard pattern we are just going straight for the runway"
Confident we had a plan that made sense we a got close to the airport and began our decent. Of course there were planes in the pattern and my buddy pointed a few out. I saw them and saw a few he did not. We descended nicely and the engine kept purring along( what a relief that is.) We made an approach to the field and now I needed to slow the plane down. Knowing if this was an electrical issue the flaps would likely not work I planned for a flap-less landing. We were descending steeply still at about 100 knots so I widened out a bit and of course a plane on left base comes right in front of us! Now I'm worried because we are about a half mile from him, descending and going much faster than he is. I'm committed to landing this plane because I need to get on the ground. I level off and pull up on the yoke to slow down and begin doing some s turns, we really only did shallow ones because I was worried about an accidental stall now too! The plane in front of us touches down and at what felt like a snails pace continues down the runway as we now are on about a 1/2 mile final. My options are now limited because I don't want to go around not knowing exactly what is going on and with fuel gauges reading 0. I try the flaps thinking maybe we can get them to slow us down-- no luck they are not working because of the electrical system failure. Lucky for me I was able to get the plane slowed down and was doing 80 knots on final. I was praying the plane on the ground would get to the turn off before much longer and by the grace of God he did. As we were about a 1/4 mile away he exited and I now only concerned myself with getting onto the ground. I told my buddy to expect a long float( also communicating this helped remind me to expect the same too.) We went over the numbers at around 70 floated a bit and touched down super smooth! My buddy gives me a huge pat on the shoulder, says " way to go!" I said, "wow am I glad we are down!" We got off the runway and passed the stop short bars and just took a second to collect ourselves. I was relieved to have made it through the most significant event I've experienced in the 340 or so hours I have many in this exact plane. On the taxi in, we both were somewhat giddy to have made it through the ordeal and commented that we now have an amazing story to tell. I apologized for putting him through this and he said, " well we can laugh about it now and honestly that's all that matters." He then said, " it was not your fault." I knew this but I felt good knowing my buddy knew this was beyond my control.
We taxied in to parking and I went into the office and asked about what I needed to do with regards to ATC. The office guy was so sorry this happened, he felt terrible that we went through this and called his boss. His boss said to give NY TRACON a call. I called them up and said, "hey I'm the pilot of xxxxxxx we were just talking to you and we had a total electrical failure and the radios went. I squawked 7600 and just wanted you to know we are back safely." He said, " ok great I'm very relieved you made it. We lost total contact and you were no longer even a blip out there and we never saw your 7600. We had several planes try to contact you, we tried to contact you several times and obviously you could not hear us. Thanks for letting us know and we are glad you are ok." I asked if I needed to fill out a form or anything and he said "nope no problem."
With the entire ordeal now resolved I began to start to think about what just happened. The mechanic came out and confirmed it was a total electrical failure. He asked if I had checked the circuit breaker( I had not-- should have) and their was a circuit popped out. I turned the master back on and the avionics switch back on and the radios came back to life. I then added the lights and then sure enough, the radios went dark again. From this experience I now know I should have shut off the lights and maybe that would have allowed me to save the radios. I asked the mechanic this and he said " maybe but honestly the radio probably would have gone soon too." I also never ran an emergency checklist for alternator failure. Maybe I should have but I honestly did not know if that was it until the flaps did not work. I really just focused on getting back to the airport throughout this entire experience.
I'm glad to be able to share this story with you all. I know an electrical failure is not a terrible thing to happen but anything that goes wrong on a airplane creates an issue. I learned some things from this and I'm proud of myself for staying calm, properly executing a plan and for the successful outcome. Thanks for reading this long post and I hope some people get something useful out of it!
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