Lando
Pre-takeoff checklist
I was out shooting some approaches this weekend when my DG failed. Fortunately, it was VFR and I had a safety pilot, so I just kept the hood on and continued the approach for a priceless experience.
While I have practiced partial panel plenty of times, I've never had anything fail in the real world. Let me say that a spinning DG is incredibly disorienting while trying to fly an approach! Just past the FAF, I noticed that something was off and the there was significant procession. As I started to match the DG with my magnetic compass it got worse and ended up about 180 degrees in the wrong direction. I tried the standby vacuum, which didn't change anything, and confirmed that the attitude indicator was still functioning properly. By now, the DG started spinning uncontrollably and was obviously not working.
I was on a GPS approach to an uncontrolled field and continued, but found myself getting pretty far off course and was about a dot shy of full deflection when I got to minimums. My biggest takeaway from this scenario is how quick you can loose situational awareness with a failure like this inside the FAF. I'm now convinced that if I ever have this happen when on an actual approach, the best scenario will be to go missed, get some altitude and trouble shoot things above the clouds or while in level flight. At that point, I could cover the faulty instrument with a piece of paper to lessen the distraction and approach could give nice easy vectors to get set up again.
Thankfully, this all happened while I was in VMC with a safety pilot, so it was a non-issue and great opportunity to learn. Hopefully it helps some of you think about the scenario too!
While I have practiced partial panel plenty of times, I've never had anything fail in the real world. Let me say that a spinning DG is incredibly disorienting while trying to fly an approach! Just past the FAF, I noticed that something was off and the there was significant procession. As I started to match the DG with my magnetic compass it got worse and ended up about 180 degrees in the wrong direction. I tried the standby vacuum, which didn't change anything, and confirmed that the attitude indicator was still functioning properly. By now, the DG started spinning uncontrollably and was obviously not working.
I was on a GPS approach to an uncontrolled field and continued, but found myself getting pretty far off course and was about a dot shy of full deflection when I got to minimums. My biggest takeaway from this scenario is how quick you can loose situational awareness with a failure like this inside the FAF. I'm now convinced that if I ever have this happen when on an actual approach, the best scenario will be to go missed, get some altitude and trouble shoot things above the clouds or while in level flight. At that point, I could cover the faulty instrument with a piece of paper to lessen the distraction and approach could give nice easy vectors to get set up again.
Thankfully, this all happened while I was in VMC with a safety pilot, so it was a non-issue and great opportunity to learn. Hopefully it helps some of you think about the scenario too!
