I?m not much of a writer but I?ll give it a shot.
I'm a 44 year old student pilot/RV-8A wannabe, currently at about 13 hours into my Private Pilot course. The other day I went out solo in a C172, departing from Honolulu International and flying about 15 miles west to Kalealoa (formerly NAS Barbers Point) for a few touch and goes. I did 2 landings and everything went uneventfully. After my second landing I called tower that I was departing the pattern and started climbing out to head back into the Honolulu Class B airspace. As I was climbing out I noticed that my Turn Coordinator now had an off flag. I checked the breakers and since they were all in I just thought to myself "Hmmm...well I don't need no stinkin turn coordinator". Off on my merry (ignorant) way I went. I contacted Honolulu Approach, received my clearance and squawk. Got handed off to Tower and received my landing clearance and shot a nice approach and landing. Tower instructed for me to exit 4L at Echo and cross 4R. After clearing 4R I stopped, switched to Ground and called for Taxi clearance to the parking. Nothing. That?s strange. Check Freq, yup, that?s right. Call again. Nada. Now that is strange. About this time (and bear in mind I?ve been on the ground all of about 4 minutes) the radios started flashing. Loosing power, coming back, going off. I just sat there wondering what the heck was going on. Finally after about 3 or 4 cycles everything just went dead. Complete electrical failure. I probably sat there for 3 hours (3 or 4 minutes in real world time) looking forlornly at my parking that was all of 100 feet away from me trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do.. Not seeing any other course of action I very carefully made sure I was clear and proceeded to taxi over to parking. After shutting down the aircraft I grabbed my CFI and we (he) figured out that the issue was an Alternator failure. I couldn't believe how close to screwing up I had been. I had made what could have been some pretty serious mistakes and gotten lucky. While luck is good to have, it's no way to operate. Points to ponder:
1.) From the time I saw the off flag on the T/C until the radios shut down was somewhere in the area of ? an hour give or take a few. No telling on how long the condition had existed prior to me noticing the flag. My troubleshooting left a LOT to be desired.
2.) During my take offs, I checked oil pressure and temps but had gotten into the habit of just glossing over that good old ammeter. I missed the alternator failing and had run the battery into the ground flying around like an idiot.
3.) I completely forgot lost comm procedures. I had been very lucky indeed to have made it down and off the runways of a busy International airport before the battery gave out.
4.) It never occurred to me to try something simple like breaking out my cell phone and calling the tower. (not that I had the number. I do now) I also now have a handheld transceiver for back up.
To say this was a humbling experience for me would be an understatement. Hopefully sharing this will prompt somebody out there and keep them from repeating my mistakes.
I'm a 44 year old student pilot/RV-8A wannabe, currently at about 13 hours into my Private Pilot course. The other day I went out solo in a C172, departing from Honolulu International and flying about 15 miles west to Kalealoa (formerly NAS Barbers Point) for a few touch and goes. I did 2 landings and everything went uneventfully. After my second landing I called tower that I was departing the pattern and started climbing out to head back into the Honolulu Class B airspace. As I was climbing out I noticed that my Turn Coordinator now had an off flag. I checked the breakers and since they were all in I just thought to myself "Hmmm...well I don't need no stinkin turn coordinator". Off on my merry (ignorant) way I went. I contacted Honolulu Approach, received my clearance and squawk. Got handed off to Tower and received my landing clearance and shot a nice approach and landing. Tower instructed for me to exit 4L at Echo and cross 4R. After clearing 4R I stopped, switched to Ground and called for Taxi clearance to the parking. Nothing. That?s strange. Check Freq, yup, that?s right. Call again. Nada. Now that is strange. About this time (and bear in mind I?ve been on the ground all of about 4 minutes) the radios started flashing. Loosing power, coming back, going off. I just sat there wondering what the heck was going on. Finally after about 3 or 4 cycles everything just went dead. Complete electrical failure. I probably sat there for 3 hours (3 or 4 minutes in real world time) looking forlornly at my parking that was all of 100 feet away from me trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do.. Not seeing any other course of action I very carefully made sure I was clear and proceeded to taxi over to parking. After shutting down the aircraft I grabbed my CFI and we (he) figured out that the issue was an Alternator failure. I couldn't believe how close to screwing up I had been. I had made what could have been some pretty serious mistakes and gotten lucky. While luck is good to have, it's no way to operate. Points to ponder:
1.) From the time I saw the off flag on the T/C until the radios shut down was somewhere in the area of ? an hour give or take a few. No telling on how long the condition had existed prior to me noticing the flag. My troubleshooting left a LOT to be desired.
2.) During my take offs, I checked oil pressure and temps but had gotten into the habit of just glossing over that good old ammeter. I missed the alternator failing and had run the battery into the ground flying around like an idiot.
3.) I completely forgot lost comm procedures. I had been very lucky indeed to have made it down and off the runways of a busy International airport before the battery gave out.
4.) It never occurred to me to try something simple like breaking out my cell phone and calling the tower. (not that I had the number. I do now) I also now have a handheld transceiver for back up.
To say this was a humbling experience for me would be an understatement. Hopefully sharing this will prompt somebody out there and keep them from repeating my mistakes.
