EFTA00755232.pdf

From: "N E M" To: "JE Jail" <jeevacation@gmail.com> Subject: Fw: C172 flight recap Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2010 16:22:41 +0000 Attachments: smthinglikethisjpg Just so you are in the loop... Forwarded Message ---- From: Lvjet <Ivjet@aol.com> To: nadja2102@yahoo.com Sent: Sat, October 2, 2010 6:17:48 PM Subject: C172 flight recap Nadia, I have read your story several limes and would like to give you my opinion, which could have been a fatal night for you,. there is a publication put out by the NTSB, that details all small aircraft accidents and incidents, a lot are fatal, but don't get the public attention since they are small aircraft owned privately, flying is dangerous, and experience comes with time., I think becoming a flight instructor is a good route to gain time and experience,. A couple things baffle me about your incident, if you had an alternator failure, why didn't the battery give you power for the Minimum of 30 minuets of operation in an emergency? or do you think it was an alternator failure, and the battery went dead after 30 minuets, not realizing the alternator had failed,. either way, you never keep resetting a popped circuit breaker, you could have started a fire in the cockpit, a breaker pops for a reason, and normally you are given ONE chance to reset, incase it is a weak breaker, remember, a circuit breaker is installed for circuit protection, and if there is a real short, by you resetting this breaker over and over, a real fire could start,. Did you declare and emergency? did you tell the controller you where having communication problems or full electrical failure? there is a big difference, and a serious emergency while in IFR conditions. You are correct when you said, you should have spent the night in Lakeland, avoiding a single engine night flight, over the everglades in IFR from Gainesville to Opalocka, would have been a good decision. ! remember, being a Captain is all about decision making, some are split second decisions and some are well thought out lengthy decisions, that are done while flight planning. Did you just rely on the little experience the other pilot had to make weather decisions for you?, you should have know better than to put yourself in this situation,. rushing, free flight time, inexpeiranced pilot, and not looking at the weather is recipe for disaster!! Remember when we stopped while flying the C182 to Jacksonville to pick up the Boeing, and drove the rest of the way, since I didn't feel comfortable with the weather ahead? what do you think I would have told you, if you asked me whether to fly at night over the everglades, when weather is IFR from Gainesville to Miami in an old C172 you are not familiar with? I don't want anything to happen to you, FLY only SAFE, Larry From: N E M To: Lvjet Sent: Sat, October 2, 2010 9:22:42 PM Subject: Re: C172 flight recap Larry. Thank you for the feedback and thank you for pointing out where I am wrong. I am glad you are telling me. EFTA00755232 Number one lesson being I should have never put myself in the position where I had to make those decisions. Learned !!! I want to answer some of your questions and add new information : 1. The alternator had just been replaced earlier that day and the mechanic now tells us the cause of our problems was a ground wire coming loose. 2. We were not in actual IMC when this happened. The weather was reported ifr at the airport, there was a layer of clouds beneath us when we lost power. We checked the weather before each leg but at the time it didn't seem bad enough to cancel. The storm had just passed, winds were almost calm, no rain, the only adverse condition would be the broken clouds on arrival and with 696 nexrad on board, we felt comfortable enough to continue and just plan for an approach into KOPF. But it was at night and in an old plane.. I guess this is where experience comes in, and you are right, next time I will choose not to continue under these conditions. 3. We had no indication the alternator failed prior to the battery draining. The alt warning light never came on but it could have been a bad bulb. It sounds like that is what happened. Everything just flickered and all lights went out. At that time we heard a weak broken transmission from atc telling us they lost our transponder, but we were not able to respond until we reset the breaker. We then quickly explained to them we just had an alternator failure and lost all power, including radios and transponder. We specifically told them we reset the breaker only this once and that there was a chance we might lose it again before we reach the airport, in which case we will not reset again. They had all this information and gave us instructions on how to continue in the event it happens. We then lost them again. We had turned all the light switches off, pitot heat, unplugged the Garmin charger, and everything else draining power. We had a heavy load on the battery before the total failure and I thought because we shed most, we were able to get some intermittent power back later just long enough to check in before the approach and get some flaps. We should not have used those flaps at all and maybe we would have had some juice to turn runway lights on. I know there were some good and some very bad decisions made that night and that's why I wanted to tell you the full story so I can get your opinion on what you would have done differently. Some of the mistakes are obvious now. The day of my first solo, you told me it's always better to wish to be in the air from the ground than the other way around and somehow that night I found myself exactly in the situation you told me to avoid. I am responsible for making that bad decision and all I can do now is learn from it. I don't think I'll forget it again. EFTA00755233