First flight with my wife and we had an emergency landing

What octane was in your flying flask. Did its contents contribute to the emergency?

 

You were just showing off your crazy calmness, impeccable training, and general pilot coolness. I'm sure she was impressed! (We all are lol)

 

Ya survived one of them 'guy just bought the plane' incidents. And ya greased it. Sumpin about situations that got your concentration on steroids often lead to those. In my experience anyway. Anyway, good job. Ya know, if ya got a Cessna you wouldn't have to do all that thinkin bout gettin the Tower to have a look at the gear.

 

I tried looking around but only finding FBO, manager, and Clearance Delivery numbers? I have my home field’s tower phone number in my phone, but good to know if and where to look in FF if you can advise.

 

Nice job, welcome to the alternator out club, mine was at night. And yes, keep the ammeter in your scan, my first indication that the gig was up was the ammeter needle was showing a hefty discharge. It signaled the issue a good while before I got the low volt light on the annunciator.

And for the love of all that is good, tell your wife to shave her legs! Oh, and ditch those New Balance, makes her look like an old lady.

 

Did you remind her that during the preflight briefing you explained the right seat is the flight engineer's position, and it was her job to monitor the engine? I mean, all the gauges are right there, that was obviously Piper's intent.

 

Having been to that airport, dealing with the other tenants may be the most hazardous part....

Well done on handling the situation.

 

Thanks. I'm going to get one of these.

 

I had something similar happen in the Aztec - dual alternator failure (longer story) back when I was pretty new to it, and had a plane full of dogs. Good job, Bryan. These things happen. And now you learned something about your new airplane (including how to do an emergency gear extension!).

One of the biggest problems I find with older planes like yours is the human factors aspects, like what you dealt with. You'll be able to make minor changes to help with that, and as you know the plane, it will become less of an issue. But, newer planes defifnitely actually think about human factors now.

 

Mrs. Steingar hated the Mooney at first. Just hated it. Seat were wrong, hard to get into, all sorts of stuff. She changed her tune when I got us back from DC in 2 hours.

Thankfully an alternator failure is a relative non event in my aircraft, since the gear and flaps are manual. Good thing too, you have to remove the prop to change the alternator belt in my aircraft.

New airplanes can have teething problems. Glad it turned out all right.

 

Saw this today and thought of this thread.

https://www.faasafety.gov/SPANS/event_details.aspx?eid=109574

 

How about Check Alternator?

 

I think you handled this well, you landed, no damage. I'm thinking that is not a factory installed switch, furthermore I wonder if someone replaced a circuit breaker with a switch, which would not be a bright move. Ya gots some work to do I think, but sweet airplane otherwise

 

I've had two in my Piper as well. The first was with an ammeter exactly like the one in your plane. I didn't notice the battery was discharging due to a broken wire until I announced landing at an uncontrolled field and the radio sounded weird. Afterwards, all I got was just a click from the starter when I tried to start back up. The second time it happened was after I installed the instrument below. Saw the yellow "battery discharge" light in time to make it all the way back to Tucson before the battery died enough to affect the radios.

 

You can also add, "You wont believe #7" "Local single moms in your area"

 

Maintenance manual [Unlocked] 761-679 - ARCHER MAINTENANCE MANUAL - PA-28-181 ARCHER II/III (centennialaviationacademy.com)

 

Also find a way to work in "I did an Internet search for ramen noodles and got flooded with gay porn."

 

The bright red string is the autopilot.

 

Great job sir! At least we won't be singing, "Hey Mr. Tangerine Man" songs about you.

Too soon?

 

Unless I’m mistaken(which is totally possible) the clearance delivery numbers should get you in touch with a controller. Even if it’s not the correct person I’m sure in an emergency they’d be able to get the information where it needed to go or get you another number.

 

glad you didn't have to pull the chute.....

 

I like "Low Voltage"

 

I like "low voltage annunciator" lamp.

 

Subscribed...

 

Good job Bryan - well handled and kept your cool!

Very true... Makes me appreciate the simplicity and redundancy that I am luck to fly with.

 

“Gryder, Gryder, Gryder”. That made me laugh out loud.

 

Say "Gryder" three times and he appears, kinda like the Candyman. Or Beetlejuice.

 

The ammeter in our Archer packed it in and we replaced it with one just like that for a fraction of the cost of a Piper one. Like it a lot.

 

"Find Orange Grove"

Or maybe that's for another thread.

 

When I had a total electrical failure, it was also because of an accidentally turned off alternator switch.

Unfortunately, it was with an instrument student, during an approach in IMC, at night!

Finding VFR conditions while flying partial panel from the right seat with a flashlight in my mouth was "fun." It must have worked, because we apparently survived.

 

I like whatever the manufacturer and/or modifier called it. Makes it easier when you get to the checklist or other documentation that uses that that terminology to address the malfunction.

 

This thread could be a commercial for an engine monitor. my EDM 700 would have started flashing way before I started losing power.

 

I fly experimental. My instrumentation allows me to set over/under limits on most parameters. I'm certain the same thing exists for certified aircraft. It's about the Benjamins ...

 

It could also be a commercial for training and systems knowledge.

 

Had similar. Avionics shop decided to flip that switch. I never flip that switch. Was at a Class C, announced we needed to make a precautionary landing. On final I noticed the alternator switch was flipped. Flipped it back and all was well. Made landing anyway, then did what needed to be done.

 

Burritos the night before?

 

You handled the situation well. You didn't do anything impulsively to make the situation worse, just thought through the problem. Yes you should have figured out how to reset the alternator as part of training, but mistakes are made. I understand flying old aircraft with odd systems and modifications, and a lack of modern manuals and checklists makes it difficult to incorporate everything into a checkout.

Ammeter check needs to be in your run-up routine. Flip a switch for something electric that draws a lot of power (on a cessna i'd use flaps) to make sure the ammeter is working and not just dead and reading zero (if that is the type of ammeter you have).

Newer engine monitoring and electronics do make a difference. I took off out of DuPage in Chicago IFR in a Piper warrior a few years back. The alternator tripped somewhere on the climb out and It could have been tripped for a good 15-20 mins between run-up and leveling out in cruise and scanning the ammeter. The ALT warning light on those old airplanes is very dim and worthless. I reset it and continued uneventfully, but I was probably 10 mins from going NORDO in IMC in busy chicago airspace.

Later I was flying a newer 172 which had an actual legitimate warning light system, VFR on top at 10,500 and got a low oil pressure indication. I knew instantly because a bright red OIL PRESSURE light flashed right in front of my face. I declared an emergency, descended through the clouds, made a power off approach to a nearby airport and landed uneventfully. (by the way, the foreflight glide distance ring was awesome to have in that situation). It was just a failed gauge. But had that been an old-style instrument located somewhere low on the panel with no warning lights, and I actually was losing oil pressure, it probably would have been several minutes at best before I caught it, and that would have been too late.

 

LOL. No, flew the WAAS upgrade over certain waypoints to make sure it was calibrated correctly.

 

Well, if nothing else, I bet the annunciator lights are now in your scan! Way to keep cool and work the problem and not turn it into a serious situation. I would offer up that a cheap handheld radio and/or the ability to connect your headset to a cell phone would have come in handy and worth consideration...