Years ago, 1993, flew from Kenai, Alaska to Idaho in a 1974 Cherokee 140 with long range fuel (50-gallons total), 150hp lyc 0320, Full IFR, with Loran C, and a wing leveler.
This trip was a 6-week long vacation. My kids flew with me, while my ex stayed home.
My original plan was to spend the night at Ketchikan, fly the next morning from Ketchikan along the coast to Bellingham, WA.
After getting a bite to eat, the kids and I did some flight planning, noticed that the next day weather was going to be a major factor. Looked at everything for a night flight.
In Canada at the time, you needed to have an IFR rating to fly at night. Okay, no problem, IFR rated and in an IFR airplane.
Filed my plan, and returned to my airplane. Once getting there, found out the fuel was NOT topped off. At the time you had to leave your airplane while they fueled it from a truck. Had to pay another $5 fee at the time to have the truck come back and top off. Each time they stop at a plane, a general aviation fee of $5 is charged to move the truck.
Once in the air, beautiful evening flight. Position reports along the way. Getting close to Port Hardy, dusk was getting darker at 900-930pm. Position call made nothing wrong, continue flying at 9500ft.
Darkness with a bright moon. Then clouds started showing up, underneath, above, the winds shifted, already added 15 degrees left to maintain ground track.
Once it was solid white underneath, my instrument lights started glowing bright, then they would go dim. A hot wire smell, next, the ADF/NDB was spinning like crazy, the Loran C shutdown.
That hot wire smell will get your attention.
I shutdown both sides of the MASTER switch.
Big problem now, no longer can see the ground track, everything for navigation turned off, compass and flashlight only.
The winds were trying to push me south over the Pacific, decided to stay over Vancouver Island instead. Without a second thought, immediately added 30 degrees more crab. Was this enough?
By now could see what looked like dark holes in the clouds below.
--In 1987 there was a fire here in Alaska, The Liven Good Fire. As an Alaska National Guard helicopter pilot, was called up and sent to Grayling Alaska to help support fire crews. We had 3-shift rotation for 24-hour support. Mark and I were the night shift. No Problem, didn't get completely dark at night yet, dark, but not full darkness.
After a few days of this, as we left one night, rain clouds were finally developing. As we headed towards St. Maries, we were flying the Loran C route we already mapped. With clouds we decided to go higher and fly between the scattered layers. Mark was senior pilot flying from the left seat in a Huey.
We got close to where we needed to descend, so Mark chose one of the dark holes in the clouds to descend through.
It wasn't a hole. It was a mountain top with trees on it. I recognized the slight green from the tree, and my mind lit up like crazy, grabbed the collective and did I ever pull. Mark came un glued. I said there are trees in that hole, we slowed down and hovered up to the hole.
Mark returned to base without saying anything. We were done for that night, the rains came and within two days we were back at home. Mark was a highly skilled Vietnam Pilot, we had many interesting flights together, but that night, nothing else needed to be said.--
I learned that black spots in clouds at night are not holes.
This night all those black holes in my mind had trees in them and not an option.
What I should have done was descend until just above them in case one might actually be a hole. Instead I stayed at 9500'.
During all this you have to decide, run out of fuel dead stick to a landing or decide to land with power and fuel. What point do you make this choice? Continuing might offer a better choice...Didn't even know if was over land or the Pacific. The mind can play all kinds of scenario's. Kept telling myself to keep thinking, really wanted to panic because no options. You have a battle to win when these kind of things happen. The clarity of telling myself to think, helped.
The scenario's, are not options, Think!
Then good LUCK was on my side.
Then I saw something so bright, I knew it wasn't a mountain top, a yard light, smack dab in the middle of a dark hole. Still wonder what the people in that home thought when I came blasting down through that opening.
Steep spiral might work for a quick descent, doing them out of trim, anything to create max drag for a descent was done that night. At times we might have been upside down.
When I broke through that hole (3500'), there was a divided highway that had street lights lining it all the way, the time was near midnight, no traffic. It was raining big time.
I know from military training that power lines cross at the poles, not mid span, although mid span does have a low bow in the wire. Great need to plan a mid span decent to get under the wires and land.
Then I decided to try the radio. The battery and Alternator had been shut off for a couple of hours (guarantee you never want to fly like this ever!). Pull all circuit breakers except radio. Turned the battery switch on. Canadian emergency freq: PAN, PAN, PAN. Nothing. Am I over the USA? 121.50, PAN, PAn, PAn, nothing. Fuel super low, 3-gallons remaining, big time head wind, not forecast.
What do I do? Still over the highway, looking for maybe a better option for landing as I travel down the road system.
One more try on the radio before landing: Canadian Freq again. A coast Guard ship called the Mallard answered my call.
Explained as clearly as I could that, major electrical failure, radio could quit at anytime. Explained the fuel, everything. They asked what I needed, "radar vectors to an airport". Compass only, wanted to get rid of ANDS issues.
They responded with "turn right, we are going to line you up on Comox runway, they are sending a crew to the tower to turn on the runway lights". "Stop turn and watch for the runway lights".
The lights came on, the tower needed to hear, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, which should have been my call all along. Once the emergency was declared, cleared to land. Smoothest landing I ever made, didn't need landing light, or taxi light, because there wasn't enough battery power left.
MP's met me at the runway, followed them to parking. The radio quit, the battery was completely dead.
Had to move the Cherokee the next morning to Courtney Airpark. With 3-gal of fuel, they lined me up on a runway that sent me direct to Courtney for fuel, customs met me there, boy did we talk. Had to jump start the Cherokee with jumper cables to leave Comox.
At Courtney, was taught how to hand prop.
Topped off with fuel, next stop was Bellingham, WA for customs. Next stop was my Uncle's location near Arlington, WA.
Mechanic at Arlington found the problem.
1974 Piper Cherokees came with a 1-piece MASTER switch. Someone had decided old school was better and installed the 2-piece switch. This switch eventually created a voltage drop across the contacts. Measured at 8-watts.
The regulator saw this drop as needing to charge the battery. On short flights this wasn't an issue, on a long flight, it was highly dangerous.
It over charged the battery to the point where it boiled all the water out of the battery, still don't know why it didn't blow up from the hydrogen gas it had to produce.
New battery, correct Master Switch, was able to finish the vacation no problems.
The Loran C never worked again.
That is my lesson learned. Plenty of others, but this one will never leave my minds eye, can still see everything clearly.
Just because it says IFR rated at night, might want to ask more questions when flying unfamiliar areas.
I call FSS briefers all the time when I'm outside my normal area. They can help with stuff you might not be aware of, that locals can caution about.
Mike
This trip was a 6-week long vacation. My kids flew with me, while my ex stayed home.
My original plan was to spend the night at Ketchikan, fly the next morning from Ketchikan along the coast to Bellingham, WA.
After getting a bite to eat, the kids and I did some flight planning, noticed that the next day weather was going to be a major factor. Looked at everything for a night flight.
In Canada at the time, you needed to have an IFR rating to fly at night. Okay, no problem, IFR rated and in an IFR airplane.
Filed my plan, and returned to my airplane. Once getting there, found out the fuel was NOT topped off. At the time you had to leave your airplane while they fueled it from a truck. Had to pay another $5 fee at the time to have the truck come back and top off. Each time they stop at a plane, a general aviation fee of $5 is charged to move the truck.
Once in the air, beautiful evening flight. Position reports along the way. Getting close to Port Hardy, dusk was getting darker at 900-930pm. Position call made nothing wrong, continue flying at 9500ft.
Darkness with a bright moon. Then clouds started showing up, underneath, above, the winds shifted, already added 15 degrees left to maintain ground track.
Once it was solid white underneath, my instrument lights started glowing bright, then they would go dim. A hot wire smell, next, the ADF/NDB was spinning like crazy, the Loran C shutdown.
That hot wire smell will get your attention.
I shutdown both sides of the MASTER switch.
Big problem now, no longer can see the ground track, everything for navigation turned off, compass and flashlight only.
The winds were trying to push me south over the Pacific, decided to stay over Vancouver Island instead. Without a second thought, immediately added 30 degrees more crab. Was this enough?
By now could see what looked like dark holes in the clouds below.
--In 1987 there was a fire here in Alaska, The Liven Good Fire. As an Alaska National Guard helicopter pilot, was called up and sent to Grayling Alaska to help support fire crews. We had 3-shift rotation for 24-hour support. Mark and I were the night shift. No Problem, didn't get completely dark at night yet, dark, but not full darkness.
After a few days of this, as we left one night, rain clouds were finally developing. As we headed towards St. Maries, we were flying the Loran C route we already mapped. With clouds we decided to go higher and fly between the scattered layers. Mark was senior pilot flying from the left seat in a Huey.
We got close to where we needed to descend, so Mark chose one of the dark holes in the clouds to descend through.
It wasn't a hole. It was a mountain top with trees on it. I recognized the slight green from the tree, and my mind lit up like crazy, grabbed the collective and did I ever pull. Mark came un glued. I said there are trees in that hole, we slowed down and hovered up to the hole.
Mark returned to base without saying anything. We were done for that night, the rains came and within two days we were back at home. Mark was a highly skilled Vietnam Pilot, we had many interesting flights together, but that night, nothing else needed to be said.--
I learned that black spots in clouds at night are not holes.
This night all those black holes in my mind had trees in them and not an option.
What I should have done was descend until just above them in case one might actually be a hole. Instead I stayed at 9500'.
During all this you have to decide, run out of fuel dead stick to a landing or decide to land with power and fuel. What point do you make this choice? Continuing might offer a better choice...Didn't even know if was over land or the Pacific. The mind can play all kinds of scenario's. Kept telling myself to keep thinking, really wanted to panic because no options. You have a battle to win when these kind of things happen. The clarity of telling myself to think, helped.
The scenario's, are not options, Think!
Then good LUCK was on my side.
Then I saw something so bright, I knew it wasn't a mountain top, a yard light, smack dab in the middle of a dark hole. Still wonder what the people in that home thought when I came blasting down through that opening.
Steep spiral might work for a quick descent, doing them out of trim, anything to create max drag for a descent was done that night. At times we might have been upside down.
When I broke through that hole (3500'), there was a divided highway that had street lights lining it all the way, the time was near midnight, no traffic. It was raining big time.
I know from military training that power lines cross at the poles, not mid span, although mid span does have a low bow in the wire. Great need to plan a mid span decent to get under the wires and land.
Then I decided to try the radio. The battery and Alternator had been shut off for a couple of hours (guarantee you never want to fly like this ever!). Pull all circuit breakers except radio. Turned the battery switch on. Canadian emergency freq: PAN, PAN, PAN. Nothing. Am I over the USA? 121.50, PAN, PAn, PAn, nothing. Fuel super low, 3-gallons remaining, big time head wind, not forecast.
What do I do? Still over the highway, looking for maybe a better option for landing as I travel down the road system.
One more try on the radio before landing: Canadian Freq again. A coast Guard ship called the Mallard answered my call.
Explained as clearly as I could that, major electrical failure, radio could quit at anytime. Explained the fuel, everything. They asked what I needed, "radar vectors to an airport". Compass only, wanted to get rid of ANDS issues.
They responded with "turn right, we are going to line you up on Comox runway, they are sending a crew to the tower to turn on the runway lights". "Stop turn and watch for the runway lights".
The lights came on, the tower needed to hear, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, which should have been my call all along. Once the emergency was declared, cleared to land. Smoothest landing I ever made, didn't need landing light, or taxi light, because there wasn't enough battery power left.
MP's met me at the runway, followed them to parking. The radio quit, the battery was completely dead.
Had to move the Cherokee the next morning to Courtney Airpark. With 3-gal of fuel, they lined me up on a runway that sent me direct to Courtney for fuel, customs met me there, boy did we talk. Had to jump start the Cherokee with jumper cables to leave Comox.
At Courtney, was taught how to hand prop.
Topped off with fuel, next stop was Bellingham, WA for customs. Next stop was my Uncle's location near Arlington, WA.
Mechanic at Arlington found the problem.
1974 Piper Cherokees came with a 1-piece MASTER switch. Someone had decided old school was better and installed the 2-piece switch. This switch eventually created a voltage drop across the contacts. Measured at 8-watts.
The regulator saw this drop as needing to charge the battery. On short flights this wasn't an issue, on a long flight, it was highly dangerous.
It over charged the battery to the point where it boiled all the water out of the battery, still don't know why it didn't blow up from the hydrogen gas it had to produce.
New battery, correct Master Switch, was able to finish the vacation no problems.
The Loran C never worked again.
That is my lesson learned. Plenty of others, but this one will never leave my minds eye, can still see everything clearly.
Just because it says IFR rated at night, might want to ask more questions when flying unfamiliar areas.
I call FSS briefers all the time when I'm outside my normal area. They can help with stuff you might not be aware of, that locals can caution about.
Mike
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