Power Switches can be nasty if they fail…
Swissair MD80 Power Switch Fire near Munich
A SR MD80 almost was lost when the above pictures switch (picture source in the BFU report linked) overheated and subsequently fire damaged a lot of stuff in the overhead panel. They lost almost all navigation capacity and just made it back onto the runway at Munich.
JasonC wrote:
We would have engine anti-ice
That would come on also on the Bravo because the pneumatic valve fails to the open position with the power removed.
JasonC wrote:
…and the only nav instrument would be the wet compass.
And the two iPads. Without flaps and power brake and speed brake and thrust reversers (all operated hydraulically through electric valves), the minimum runway length for landing is in the order of 2000m. Should I ever have that total electrical failure (I practiced it in the simulator a couple of times) then I would navigate by iPad to a suitably sized field, descend to within mobile phone range, call our operations department and tell them to advise that airfield that we will land there in exactly xx minutes with no transponder and no lights of any kind. A non-precision approach can be flown using Jeppesen mobile flight deck on the iPad – but I really wouldn’t want to do all that single-pilot.
JasonC wrote:
the only nav instrument would be the wet compass
Maybe you should reconsider a battery powered AHRS?
what_next wrote:
And the two iPads. Without flaps and power brake and speed brake and thrust reversers (all operated hydraulically through electric valves), the minimum runway length for landing is in the order of 2000m.
In Orlando I had the joy of practising dual gen failure, battery not lasting the 30 mins on emer it is supposed to last, in IMC and with OEI and after a runaway rudder trim. At least they only failed the battery when I was established on the LPV centreline.
Rwy20 wrote:
Maybe you should reconsider a battery powered AHRS?
That is what the GDL39 is for. But I am less worried about AHRS as I have standby Instruments. Biggest issue is navigation.
Rwy20 wrote:
Maybe you should reconsider a battery powered AHRS?
Most of the data provided by the AHRS is there in form of the standby instrument (attitude, IAS and altitude). The only thing that’s missing is a proper compass, the “wet compass” is typically off by 20 degrees even if the little deviation table underneath tells otherwise…
what_next wrote:
That would come on also on the Bravo because the pneumatic valve fails to the open position with the power removed.
Same on Mustang.
Some years ago our business operated a Citation 1sp
We spent in the region of $200k a year operating it on the N register (not that any other register would be much different)
The maintenance regime is straightforward and laid out in the Cessna programme, but any snags are expensive.
They are easy to fly if it’s all going well. As soon as you get a fault, particularly if you lose the autopilot, it’s a different story
I had a 1.5hr sim session with a CJ3, so I know somewhere south of nothing, and we had a total loss of electrics there, but in VMC I had no issue landing it on some road. On Mali Losinj actually. It does glide rather too well… one may need to do S-turns to lose height because the gear down with the gas bottle is a one-off thing; it can’t come back up.
Obviously in IMC it is the same scenario as with any other plane… you have other, bigger, problems. Do people train to glide down and fly an ILS? It should be possible to develop a procedure. Flapless, gear down, it may even do 3 degrees.
Peter wrote:
Obviously in IMC it is the same scenario as with any other plane… you have other, bigger, problems. Do people train to glide down and fly an ILS? It should be possible
How will you track the ILS with no electrics?
