Guess it pays to remember those light signals

StinkBug

StinkBug

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Dallas
Had my first comms failure today. I did my longest flight to date yesterday, up to KMIT from KMYF to see the drag races at Bakersfield last night, flying a plane that I hadn't actually flown before. Everything was great until just before landing on the way back this afternoon. I had gotten flight following all the way back and all was good until I descended around Torrey Pines and tried to call into the tower. Apparently they were hearing me loud and clear, but I couldn't hear a thing. Since I hadn't gotten a response I turned away just before hitting their airspace, and when I did I picked up part of a call from them. I couldn't pick up much, but I knew it was for me so I knew I didn't have to worry about busting their airspace anymore and continued in on downwind for 28R. I called a couple more times and let them know what I was doing and that I was having trouble hearing them, while pulling all the stuff off my kneeboard to look for that light signal cheat sheet. As I got closer I picked them up again, and also saw green from the tower. I told them I was picking them up again, they cleared me to land and right after I read back my clearance all my radios went dead completely. My passengers were a little "WTF?" when the intercom suddenly went dead, but thankfully they stayed calm. I yelled to them that we had been cleared to land, and were given light signals as well, so everything was ok. I changed my squawk to 7600, but realized shortly after that the indicator on the transponder wasn't on either so I suppose that did nothing. I got the green light again on final, and landed as normal, pulled off the runway and waited for more signals.

I had quickly looked at the breaker panel and nothing was popped out, and decided to just fly the plane and not bother with too much trouble shooting. Turns out the toggle switch for the avionics on this particular plane is also the circuit breaker and it had tripped. I recycled it before parking and everything came back to life. Gotta love unfamiliar aircraft with unknown issues! All in all, it was somewhat of a non-event, but I did just get a kick out of listening to the whole thing on LiveATC, and hearing everything I couldn't hear before.
 
StinkBug,

If you don't mind, what time frame was this at? I would like to pull that up on the LiveATC archives to hear as well. KMYF is my home airport so would be a good learning exercise.

-Brian
 
2130-2200Z, its only about 2:30 in. Cherokee 57361
 
I tried calling the Tower but couldn't get through to anybody. Guess they were a bit busy. I thought about calling on the radio, but didn't think it was appropriate to tie up the frequency for a situation that was over. They have enough to do.
 
Kudos! Never had that happened, but is something I worry about when flying class C... I love that chart cheat sheet :)
 
I will study and remember the light signals for a few days. After that, it's gone. Hence why it is on a placard attached to the sun visor :)
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
I will study and remember the light signals for a few days. After that, it's gone. Hence why it is on a placard attached to the sun visor :)
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It's not that hard to remember the important signals for in the air. Green is good, red is bad. Flashing makes it less good or more bad (IOW flashing makes it worse). Flashing both makes it really bad but conveys no specific instructions.
 
Good Job.

I had the same thing happen to me landing at Love Field in Dallas.
 
It was after my first comm failure that I bought my handheld. Good job on keeping the shiny side up.
 
Yeah a handheld is definitely on my shopping list. Especially since I know I'll likely be flying a lot of different rental planes. Kinda bothers me how much aviation radios cost though. I own, and can pick up a good HAM for around $50 on amazon but the same thing on a different frequency is 4 times as much.
 
StinkBug said:
Yeah a handheld is definitely on my shopping list. Especially since I know I'll likely be flying a lot of different rental planes. Kinda bothers me how much aviation radios cost though. I own, and can pick up a good HAM for around $50 on amazon but the same thing on a different frequency is 4 times as much.
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I guess there is no way to change frequencies on these radios like there was in the old days when you would just change a Chrystal?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
StinkBug said:
Yeah a handheld is definitely on my shopping list. Especially since I know I'll likely be flying a lot of different rental planes. Kinda bothers me how much aviation radios cost though. I own, and can pick up a good HAM for around $50 on amazon but the same thing on a different frequency is 4 times as much.
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RalphInCA said:
I guess there is no way to change frequencies on these radios like there was in the old days when you would just change a Chrystal?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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You have one other little complication trying to use a ham radio on aviation frequencies. The 2 meter band is typically FM. Aviation uses AM. Even if you could get the ham radio to transmit on aviation frequencies nobody would understand you. Not to mention the fact that the radio wouldn't be FCC Certified for operation on those frequencies. Nice idea, but it won't work.

Now, my Yaesu VX-5 triband amateur radio handheld does receive AM in certain frequency ranges, including aviation. Just can't transmit there...

Ghery, N6TPT
 
Ghery said:
You have one other little complication trying to use a ham radio on aviation frequencies. The 2 meter band is typically FM. Aviation uses AM. Even if you could get the ham radio to transmit on aviation frequencies nobody would understand you. Not to mention the fact that the radio wouldn't be FCC Certified for operation on those frequencies. Nice idea, but it won't work.



Now, my Yaesu VX-5 triband amateur radio handheld does receive AM in certain frequency ranges, including aviation. Just can't transmit there...



Ghery, N6TPT
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I think his point was that the hoarde of cheap Chinese knockoffs hasn't made it out into the Aviation handhelds yet.

He wants a Baofeng or Woxun Aviation HT.
 
That's exactly my point. I have one of the Baofeng hand held hams, and the race team I work with has about 10 of em. They work fantastically and are very durable. I just checked and amazon sells em for $30 now. Since this would be an emergency backup to keep in my bag and virtually never use, spending over $200 is a tough one to justify.
 
StinkBug said:
That's exactly my point. I have one of the Baofeng hand held hams, and the race team I work with has about 10 of em. They work fantastically and are very durable. I just checked and amazon sells em for $30 now. Since this would be an emergency backup to keep in my bag and virtually never use, spending over $200 is a tough one to justify.
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I looked them up and it seems like most of them work on frequency 136-174 which won't help out much flying. Any suggestions?

$30 sounds like a bargain
 
Mike5250 said:
I looked them up and it seems like most of them work on frequency 136-174 which won't help out much flying. Any suggestions?

$30 sounds like a bargain
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No importer has yet...

A) Ripped off any good AM aircraft transceiver designs and sent them to a Chinese firm to produce them.

B) Decided there's enough of a market to do so, including FCC certification.

See A). If they can buy a design legitimately that has already passed certification they simply manufacture, the venture becomes immediately profitable.

Alinco sold many of the designs that were originally being produced in the Ham market. The Chinese companies could sell to Hams (no type certification required from FCC for Amateur use) while waiting for the exact same radio to be type certified for commercial band use. All upside.

Other well known importers have had firms reverse engineer more difficult products. The Connect Systems CS700 mimics every feature of rival Motorola's DMR radios except the one Moto has a parent on. Roaming. At less than 1/3 of the price. The stupid thing even makes identical noises at power up.

An entrepreneur could find the right contacts to copy a design and get the ball rolling and act as importer, just as CS has in DMR. Frankly I'd think it'd be easier just to beg CS to do it all. They'd want to know how many units they'd sell and that's the rub on AM Aircraft. Not many, as compared to the rest of the land mobile radio market. Too nichy.

None of the current imports will transmit in AM Aircraft. Some do receive.

I like my two CS700 radios. They're built plenty well and work fine. Tons and tons of people love the Baofeng and Woxun radios. Or maybe love the price and can live with their quirks is a better way to put it.

Don't think without a singularly dedicated importer you'll see an aircraft radio any time soon. These companies also want to sell in China, besides exporting to the U.S. and elsewhere, and the market for aviation HTs there is pretty soft in China, or so I hear.
 
RalphInCA said:
Hmmmm.



I wonder if there is a business opportunity here?
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I did my own number crunching on it and decided not to pursue it, but the numbers do show it could be profitable if everything goes right.

Which is why I posted the current state of affairs. Maybe someone wants a small side business that will require trips to China and feels like stressing out over the low margins. Or has the right people and contacts already in place to handle something this low in volume as part of a larger already operationally viable venture.
 
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