Adam Weiss
New member
Had a close call I thought I'd share...as always, please don't bash...just sharing and hope it will help someone.
Had some low ceilings the other night, and since temperatures were finally warm enough not to have icing, I thought I'd go shoot some approaches in actual. The wife likes to fly, so she wanted to come with me.
I had the first indication of a problem during runup. I always use checklists, and when I got to voltage, I saw 12V. I thought that was weird. When charging, I usually see 14V. But I didn't put 2+2 together...since it was night and I had all my lights on, I thought that may have been the difference. Plus it's a 12V system, right?
Got IFR clearance and took off into the soup at night.
Was going to do a couple approaches and come back.
Getting vectors en route to first IAF, and I notice voltage is now 10V.
Now I finally realize there's a problem.
I notified ATC I had an electrical problem, and please vector me to the approach ASAP.
ATC was really good...and helped me out.
Got down through the soup...popped out around 700 AGL, and voltage was down to 8.5V.
Lost radios at this point, and landed in the dark...no landing/taxi lights.
Fortunately, runway lights were on, but not taxiway.
Called up via phone to close IFR.
Was reasonably calm (on the outside) throughout, so the wife was not too freaked out.
Root cause: wire broke off alternator.
Big takeaway...on my checklist now, I don't just say, "Voltage: check". I say, "Voltage: 14V".
I know I got lucky...
Had some low ceilings the other night, and since temperatures were finally warm enough not to have icing, I thought I'd go shoot some approaches in actual. The wife likes to fly, so she wanted to come with me.
I had the first indication of a problem during runup. I always use checklists, and when I got to voltage, I saw 12V. I thought that was weird. When charging, I usually see 14V. But I didn't put 2+2 together...since it was night and I had all my lights on, I thought that may have been the difference. Plus it's a 12V system, right?
Got IFR clearance and took off into the soup at night.
Was going to do a couple approaches and come back.
Getting vectors en route to first IAF, and I notice voltage is now 10V.
Now I finally realize there's a problem.
I notified ATC I had an electrical problem, and please vector me to the approach ASAP.
ATC was really good...and helped me out.
Got down through the soup...popped out around 700 AGL, and voltage was down to 8.5V.
Lost radios at this point, and landed in the dark...no landing/taxi lights.
Fortunately, runway lights were on, but not taxiway.
Called up via phone to close IFR.
Was reasonably calm (on the outside) throughout, so the wife was not too freaked out.
Root cause: wire broke off alternator.
Big takeaway...on my checklist now, I don't just say, "Voltage: check". I say, "Voltage: 14V".
I know I got lucky...
