Single Pilot Partial Panel Currency

sdfcvoh

sdfcvoh

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I ended up shooting an actual partial panel into KGJT (divert) after a full vacuum failure on my way to KCPR. My Mooney was TKS equipped, but after a long winter flight, the icing had gone from light to heavy causing me to approach TKS (omg I'm a flying piano) minimums.

Denver Center: "Mooney xxx, Grand Junction approach is xxx.xx, do you have information xyz?" pause pause pause.... the Denver Center controller continued, "Sorry xxx, I forgot your situation, let me read that to you." It was at that moment I remembered thinking, "This is a tight spot." I'd never even thought about getting the ATIS.

I popped out on final at 500AGL. When I pulled off the runway to shut off a few things I always touched before taxiing, I noticed my hand shook as I went for buttons.

Keep current on those partial panels...
 
sdfcvoh said:
I ended up shooting an actual partial panel into KGJT (divert) after a full vacuum failure on my way to KCPR. My Mooney was TKS equipped, but after a long winter flight, the icing had gone from light to heavy causing me to approach TKS (omg I'm a flying piano) minimums.

Denver Center: "Mooney xxx, Grand Junction approach is xxx.xx, do you have information xyz?" pause pause pause.... the Denver Center controller continued, "Sorry xxx, I forgot your situation, let me read that to you." It was at that moment I remembered thinking, "This is a tight spot." I'd never even thought about getting the ATIS.

I popped out on final at 500AGL. When I pulled off the runway to shut off a few things I always touched before taxiing, I noticed my hand shook as I went for buttons.

Keep current on those partial panels...
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Congratulations, you're alive.

Always know where the nearest good weather is for when this sort of nonsense pops up.
 
Very well done! It's a well trained pilot such as yourself that is able to get through a situation like this. Keep up the good work!
 
ppragman said:
Congratulations, you're alive.

Always know where the nearest good weather is for when this sort of nonsense pops up.
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You know, I was thinking about this the other day en-route. Basically I was saying to myself, you know if crap hits the fan today, this airplane doesn't carry enough fuel to find good weather.

Partial panel though, that's something I haven't trained for or have done for 4 years maybe, talk about a lost skill. Nice.
 
z987k said:
You know, I was thinking about this the other day en-route. Basically I was saying to myself, you know if crap hits the fan today, this airplane doesn't carry enough fuel to find good weather.

Partial panel though, that's something I haven't trained for or have done for 4 years maybe, talk about a lost skill. Nice.
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With most glass applications, it's unlikely, but certainly within the realm of possibilities.

Having three different attitude indicating systems makes me feel warm and fuzzy, but it would be a bad day if we were down to emergency power only (peanut gyro, VHF 1, ATC 1, and ADF (!!) 1—so that you can (a) listen to ATC, (b) have ATC track you and (c) listen to coverage of your emergency on KNX, I suppose). At that point we'd be looking for The Big VFR or trying to start the APU and recover some electrical.
 
Autothrust Blue said:
With most glass applications, it's unlikely, but certainly within the realm of possibilities.

Having three different attitude indicating systems makes me feel warm and fuzzy, but it would be a bad day if we were down to emergency power only (peanut gyro, VHF 1, ATC 1, and ADF (!!) 1—so that you can (a) listen to ATC, (b) have ATC track you and (c) listen to coverage of your emergency on KNX, I suppose). At that point we'd be looking for The Big VFR or trying to start the APU and recover some electrical.
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Ya, something along the lines of duel engine and battery failure would have to happen.
 
Makes the price for solid-state gyro equipment seem really reasonable, doesn't it? Not that it would have helped your ice situation.
 
Well done! In my opinion most proficient instrument pilots can fly decently after losing a vacuum pump but it's recognizing the failure that will kill you. I was in the sim two weeks ago and the instructor killed the vacuum 1500 feet agl on an ILS to minimums. He was distracting me by talking and I knew something was wrong but it took me too long to register what had failed on me. I put the plane in the ground. Really puts it in perspective for ya.
Good job again!
 
Cal Goat said:
No excuse not to toss the old vacuum pump?
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I have both in the family sled actually. Solid state AHRS and vacuum standby horizon. But I'd rather have a tiny electric peanut gyro and ditch the vac pumps. They're annoying and while one hasn't broken on us, one failing would not surprise me.
 
I've only had one vacuum pump fail on me in 2000+ hours of flying them, and fortunately, it was in a Navajo with dual pumps. But, the concept seems archaic now with the reliability and relative affordability of electronic units.
 
Cal Goat said:
I've only had one vacuum pump fail on me in 2000+ hours of flying them, and fortunately, it was in a Navajo with dual pumps. But, the concept seems archaic now with the reliability and relative affordability of electronic units.
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Thought the Navajo used pressure pumps instead of vacuum pumps.

I have had multiple dry pump failures over the years.. usually had some indications they were gonna puke before hand. The current machine has 2 ADAHARS, the original analog horizon driven off bleed pressure plus a standby electric pump. If things get really bad there is always the 6 pack page on the handheld.
 
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Cracks me up that I somehow found the time to trim up one of the sheets so I could nicely see the ASI...
z987k said:
That's the first thing I did when I had an AI failure. Cover it up. It could be clear and a million, and a broken AI will give me the leans.
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z987k said:
That's the first thing I did when I had an AI failure. Cover it up. It could be clear and a million, and a broken AI will give me the leans.
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I have just recently started my IR training, and that has been an early lesson - covering that sucker up works wonders for me. I'm keeping a small stack of post-it notes easily at hand for that reason now.
 
Great job, man - i fly a 201 now and then and regularly practice partial panel ops. It does have stand-by vac but I'm not sure how good that system works.

Bp244
 
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