My only in-flight emergency
The other day my friends Bob and the crew on the Bob Rivers Show (KZOK mornings, 6-10am) were chatting about their worst flying experiences. I decided to call in with my own as a pilot.
Here are URL's to the streaming audio. My call is on the second clip at 7 minutes and 10 seconds into it:
http://www.bobrivers.com/asx/TR_3527.asx
http://www.bobrivers.com/asx/TR_3528.asx
Several friends heard me and wrote or called to ask me for more details. Here is a write up I did for another pilot:
Actually, it was a very good learning experience. It was the first in a series of electrical problems with 965CW. I didn't include the Amp meter in my panel scan and was an hour into the flight when the "low volts" annunciator came on. I quickly turned off everything I didn't need and notified ATC. I was pretty much at the mid-point of the flight and right over the mountains. Thankfully the weather was good at the mountains, but the last reported temp/dew point at PAE was about 3c apart and I was worried about fog coming in.
I continued forward because I was more familiar with the West side of the Cascades and knew PAE had a manned tower until 10pm.
Volts drained quickly, even with everything unnecessary off. I kept one radio on, the transponder, and killed all the lights. ATC called me and couldn't hear my reply. At that point I put in 7600 into the transponder and every 10 seconds alternated it with 7700. ATC asked if I was declaring an emergency, but they couldn't hear my reply. I switched to 7700 and kept it there and heard them say, "We read your emergency transponder code and will notify Paine Field." I switched the radio off at that point, but kept the transponder on, I was hoping they could track me in.
Flying over Monroe and Snohomish, the weather was clear, and I could see several aircraft in the pattern at PAE. I was worried about being able to see the airspeed indicator. I wasn't too worried about the landing, because of Paine's wide and long runway, but on the other hand, a no-flap landing, without a landing light, I knew it was going to be hard to judge my height above the runway.
I aimed for the middle of the field, intending to join left downwind for 16L. At that point, I saw green flashes from the tower. They were using a light gun to signal me and clear me to land. It was very cool to actually see it in operation!
As I turned downwind, all the other aircraft in the pattern were gone, but I noticed that two fire trucks were parked near the end of the runway, lights flashing.
I worked out a system to hold my cell phone in my left hand while also gripping the yoke. I'd hit a button to get the cell phone to light up and show the airspeed indicator - barely. On final, I just basically got a real slow, 200fpm descent going and didn't worry about the airspeed as much.
The problem then became the lights on the runway. They were bright, and the flashing fire truck lights were a distraction. I was trying to gage my height above the runway, but that's impossible with the center line lights and the lights on the side of the runway just kept moving away - it's a wide runway!
Eventually I landed, pretty smooth too because I'd kept power on and the descent rate was so shallow. The trucks followed me up the runway and I pulled off. I didn't want to stop the engine on the taxiway, because I knew it wouldn't start again, but the fire guys were waving at me. Finally, one came over and I yelled for him to lead me to the ramp, which they did. I think they like being called out every so often, even for the non-events.
I had to visit the tower and talk with the controller and sign something (because I'd declared an emergency.) But that was the end of it. I gave a call to the supervisor at Seattle Center and asked him to thank everyone there and at approach.
The lessons learned:
- Modern planes and avionics chew up electrical power. Within 40 minutes I had no power whatsoever.
- Know the light gun signals! I'm ashamed to say that at the time, I only really knew that green means okay and red means not okay.
- Keep a flashlight in your flight bag, and also in the plane. I hadn't grabbed my regular flight bag and the last resort LED flashlight on my keychain was mystically missing. Now I keep a flashlight in my headset bag, two in my flight bag, one pen-sized one in my kneeboard and a couple in the glove compartment. They all use AA batteries (same as my headset), I can always swap batteries around.