Baronpilot244
Killick Stoker
Had an experience the other night in a piston single heading to my home airport from SSI. Dark night, solid IMC and raining heavily and the #1 radio (Garmin 430W) gives up the ghost on transmit. No problem, try the #2, Ha! That one decided it could neither send nor receive, well it was an old KX170 after all.
So! 7600 goes in the box and for good measure I pressed the ident button while ATL approach is trying to reach me. Mere seconds later the controller says he observes my 76 squawk and if I can hear him to ident again - this I do and he immediately asks me if I want an approach into the airport, if I do I should reply with an ident. From there on we communicated by questions and idents for the "affirmatives".
Everything else went reasonably well (I wouldn't have said it was the prettiest instrument approach of my career) - luckily I had my handheld and was able to turn on the runway lights. I broke out about 200 feet above mins and got it on the ground, called approach on the phone and cancelled my IFR. They sounded very relieved to hear from me, just as I was glad to be safely parked on the ramp.
During the approach I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to turn the runway lights on and therefore unable to land safely - my plan in that event was to shoot the published missed, squawk 7700 and head for ATL. I had plenty of fuel and I thought if I pointed the airplane that way the controller would figure out my plan and clear the airspace.
Point of my post is - our ATL controllers are top notch and I was very glad to have a calm voice on the other end of the radio. It was very dark, bumpy and I could have easily given in to panic, but knowing I had folks out there watching me closely was a huge comfort and helped me concentrate on keeping the bird right side up.
Day VFR wouldn't have been a issue, but throw in darkness, no autopilot and hard IFR and it all becomes very different.
Anyway - this is a thank you to the ATL controller who "held my hand" and to all the other controllers on here who make it happen.
Bp244
So! 7600 goes in the box and for good measure I pressed the ident button while ATL approach is trying to reach me. Mere seconds later the controller says he observes my 76 squawk and if I can hear him to ident again - this I do and he immediately asks me if I want an approach into the airport, if I do I should reply with an ident. From there on we communicated by questions and idents for the "affirmatives".
Everything else went reasonably well (I wouldn't have said it was the prettiest instrument approach of my career) - luckily I had my handheld and was able to turn on the runway lights. I broke out about 200 feet above mins and got it on the ground, called approach on the phone and cancelled my IFR. They sounded very relieved to hear from me, just as I was glad to be safely parked on the ramp.
During the approach I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to turn the runway lights on and therefore unable to land safely - my plan in that event was to shoot the published missed, squawk 7700 and head for ATL. I had plenty of fuel and I thought if I pointed the airplane that way the controller would figure out my plan and clear the airspace.
Point of my post is - our ATL controllers are top notch and I was very glad to have a calm voice on the other end of the radio. It was very dark, bumpy and I could have easily given in to panic, but knowing I had folks out there watching me closely was a huge comfort and helped me concentrate on keeping the bird right side up.
Day VFR wouldn't have been a issue, but throw in darkness, no autopilot and hard IFR and it all becomes very different.
Anyway - this is a thank you to the ATL controller who "held my hand" and to all the other controllers on here who make it happen.
Bp244
