Super helpful video, thank you for sharing this. Glad all worked out okay, and appreciate the way you walked through your thought process as the situation evolved

Mike, excellent video and debrief. I too had several alternator failures in my C177B but every time I could cycle the alternator switch and it would come back on with no further issues. I reported the incident to my A&P and because it was an intermittent problem he could only suggest replacing the alternator or voltage regulator and see if that cured the problem. I wasn't interested in his shot gun approach so I continued to fly the plane. The last time it happened was on an Angel Flight mission with 1 pax and as luck would have it I was over my home airport about half way through the mission and cycling the alternator switch did not bring it back on. I was VMC at the time so, without declaring an emergency I told ATC I had an alternator problem and diverted to my home airport. After arranging alternate transportation for my pax I walked down to my A&P's shop and he was still in the shot gun mode as far as troubleshooting. Long story short, I did some trouble shooting and found a loose connection at the voltage regulator. Problem solved! With regard to your decision to declare an emergency, who would find fault in that. Declare and use all the resources available to you. Personally, I would not have chosen to fly a low instrument approach back into the departure airport. If I was on top in VMC with plenty of fuel and VMC airports nearby, I would have headed for it. Just my 2 cents. Nice job in managing the situation and landing safely. New subscriber looking forward to the next videos!

Thank you for sharing

Great debrief, thank you so much for that! For me there´s a lot to learn from that.

Mike, Excellent video and analysis. Although my flying and ground instructing days ended back when the ILS was the best we had, not many small GA aircraft had HSIs, video panels, GPS and RNAV did not exist (LORAN and MLS - now obsolete - were new concepts), and we flew NDB approaches in IMC with no autopilot and managed to find the airport. The basics have not changed. Fly the airplane first, climb, confess and communicate. Above all, stay calm and figure it out. ATC is your best friend, and don't be afraid to declare an emergency. Loss of the only alternator in IMC will quickly become partial panel with loss of communications. Have you thought about using it as a training video in your instrument training? Thank you for sharing. Happy New Year!

Good job 👍

Wow you stayed cool and level headed!

And wind was calm !

Good outcome , Captain desicion, I would have return as well but, wouldnt decleare an emergency so soon,,,check you connections, (Ground,positive,Alt -sw) also replace your voltage regulator,

I think I would have returned to my well known home airport also in an effort to get on the ground asap

Mike, thanks for posting this... and the good, thorough analysis. I would have also selected option #1; the only tweak I would (hopefully) have done would be to request the RNAV 27 LPV (assuming you had a WAAS 430). As you know, the LPVs are in general much more stable than the ILSs. With a good (e.g. digital) autopilot, I'd just leave the AP on all the way to pavement, managing power to affect a pseudo flair. Nice job on the emergency, and nice video. Wayne (DA40 KSBA)

@MalibuMikeCFII

2 жыл бұрын

Interesting idea although I don't think this situation would warrant busting minimums given that I have a perfectly good airplane with a lot of gas even if I run out of electricity.

Great video. Awesome job setting it up and walking us through it.

Thanks for putting together such a detailed debrief!

Well done!

Nice work!

How did you get the landline tapes from the ATC facilities?

@MalibuMikeCFII

Жыл бұрын

FOIA request!