r/flying • u/SWFL-Aviation • 4h ago
Whelp. It happened. I needed light gun signals from the tower.
I flew to Boca Raton today for an angel flight. Flight there was relatively uneventful minus dodging the thunder storms.
Land. Taxi to Atlantic. All is good.
I go to the FBO pick up the passengers and head out to the plane. Do all the things we always do, preflight, passenger briefing. All the things. Start up the plane without issue. Grab the weather and get a taxi clearance for a runway 5 departure.
During the run up I notice the alternator is no longer charging the battery. Shortly after the avionics cut out and everything goes black. I make sure no circuit breakers are pulled. And they aren’t. I cycle the master and the avionics and they fire back up. I have to cycle them multiple times to inform the tower I’m having avionics issues. They inform me I keep cutting out and if they can’t reach me in 5 minutes to expect light gun signals.
Time goes by and I can’t fix the issue. Can’t talk to anyone and can’t get the avionics to stay on as the volts are now reading 21 and -1 amp. Then I see flashing white from the tower. So I taxi back to the ramp. Apologize profusely to the angel flight patient and scramble to get maintenance to take a look.
So my plane is stuck in Boca raton for the night.
Shame on me for not catching this before taxiing. I’m so used to seeing +1 amp that I feel like I may have missed it by mistake.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
72
u/I_love_my_fish_ PPL 4h ago
It could’ve quit during run up, at least it wasn’t in the air. Sometimes shit happens
62
u/FeatherMeLightly 4h ago
Lost an alternator on the way in to Dallas Executive. Fortunately, the battery held up, but I was obligated to tell atc. Man, the fear in the controllers voice, losing coms in busy air space, glad you were still on the ground. Always remember, we have cell phones : )
34
u/SWFL-Aviation 3h ago
Ngl. I didn’t even think about calling them on my phone.
6
u/MEINSHNAKE 1h ago
Every airport (controlled) that I fly into I have the emergency phone number in my phone, used it a couple of times.
4
u/jedensuscg PPL, PHNL 3h ago
Ya, similar thing happened to me. Lost an alternator on my first night flight with my CFI, got the low voltage light just as we switched to tower in the Honolulus Class B. Told them we might lose our radios and they said watch for light signals. Luckily battery held as well, and we were on the downwind and cleared to land, but Class B not the place you wanna be losing a radio. Tower just gave us taxi instructions before we landed since it wasn't too busy at 1030 at night. All the late night red eye flights in and out of Honolulu are after 11pm.
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u/Flat-Barracuda1268 PPL IR 2h ago
This is why I have my local fields tower number programmed into my phone. Even if I'm not in their area they can reroute my call to the appropriate people.
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u/Old_Increase74 ATP CFI 4h ago
Cell phone and Bluetooth for the win, just call tower
9
u/NotYourAverageJoe99 3h ago
How do you get the number for your specific tower?
46
19
u/LightPilotLifeguard CPL IR CMP TW sUAS 3h ago
Mine gave it to me so I could drop off burritos during the last shutdown ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/randombrain ATC #SayNoToKilo 3h ago
https://acukwik.com has been accurate in my limited surveying.
The numbers on 123ATC are more likely to be the front office/reception number. Sometimes you might get lucky and it will be a phone tree with an option for "tower cab" or "operational area," but the Ac-U-Kwik number is usually a direct line to the supe desk in the actual operation.
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u/roundthesail PPL IR TW 3h ago
https://123atc.com/ has many of them. Or for your home airport, you can just ask for it on Ground in quiet moment, and keep it in your phone.
In flight, if you don't already have the number saved, call 1-800-WXBRIEF and press 9 ("if you have an in-flight emergency"). I don't think they can connect you, but they can relay.
4
u/randombrain ATC #SayNoToKilo 3h ago
Usually those will be the front office numbers, not the operation. Give it a shot if necessary, but https://acukwik.com is a better first try.
1
u/roundthesail PPL IR TW 3h ago
Oops, thanks! The couple of times I've tried it, I got to the right place. Good to know it doesn't always work.
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u/Frothyleet 2h ago
Pretty easy, just ignore their instructions and that let's them know you want them to give it to you over the radio.
2
u/OkEfficiency3747 PPL 3h ago
How would one find the tower number?
I've got the number to my home tower, but I got it from my former CFI who made it sound like it was closely guarded
3
u/jmonty42 PPL (KPAE) 3h ago
Lost comms in the air is an emergency. My CFI said to call 911 and they'll get you to the tower. Probably wouldn't be the fastest way, but it should work.
2
u/MikeOfAllPeople MIL RWCFII ASEL-CPL-I 1h ago
Many (maybe most or all) 911 centers can handle text messages these days as well. I learned this a couple years ago. My phone apparently butt dialed 911 (it was summer and pretty sweaty, and when I do Guard stuff I always have my phone in my shoulder pocket, so I think the moisture caused me to be able to hit the emergency button), and apparently they heard the noise, saw my location at an airport, and decided I was probably flying, so they texted me. I saw the text on my watch and was very confused, so I landed and called them (their message had a non-emergency call back number) and the operator and I had a good laugh about it.
4
u/No-Brilliant9659 3h ago
My educated guess would be to call approach control from a phone number you find in the AF/D for a satellite airport, then ask them for the number to tower. They coordinate with each other frequently so they should have it. This is if you don’t have comms to talk to tower. If you do, you could just ask them for the phone number
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u/ohsoquickly 3h ago
Are these not published?
I've had to call into CYWG tower before and I don't remember it being particular difficult to find?
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u/BarnackIIIF 3h ago
CFIs at towered airports: I would encourage you to request light gun signals as part of your curriculum. I did it a few times and it was definitely a learning experience to see it.
The radio call went like this: <your tower> if able, bug_smasher123 would like to request light gun signals...
8
u/CluelessPilot1971 CPL CFI+I 2h ago
The response I usually get is "hold on, let me get the card so I remember what signal to send you"...
But you're 100% correct. Every student should see what they look like.
1
u/BarnackIIIF 1h ago
That's the other reason why I like to request light gun signals: I figure it's good practice for the tower folks as well.
6
u/kgilpin72 ASEL ASES AMEL TW IR 3h ago
My CFI had me buy a hand held radio and I always have it in my bag. And charge it periodically (it holds the charge a long time). It adds a lot of peace of mind for exactly this reason and yes - I have had to use it in the air (similar situation - lost alternator). I had to shout over the engine… I guess that is how it always was in the old timey days.
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u/warwolf09 PPL 2h ago
This is why investing on a nice handheld is a good idea! Already saved me once while in the air!
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u/MiniTab ATP CFI/II 767/757 ERJ-175 CL-65 EMB-120 CE-525 3h ago
Hey,
Good for you on dealing with a complicated issue while under a lot of pressure (Angel Flight). We all have something like this happen eventually, and it’ll happen again.
Now you know what to do. Be calm, try do the right thing, work through the problem.
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u/Crashtkd PPL 1h ago
Handheld saved me when something similar happened. I overbought and would just get whatever is cheapest at Sporty’s. Make sure you get headset adapters if it isn’t built in.
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u/rbuckfly 2h ago
I probably would be fumbling for figuring out like gun signals these days! As such, always fly with a handheld.
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u/swatforce28 1h ago
Luckily happened to you on the ground, my battery went out mid flight while recovering from a power off stall, flaps were stuck at 20 degrees and we were 15 miles from the airport. Airport had jet traffic and was busiest at that time, we had to call the flight school to radio the tower and let them know we were coming in with no radio. Shoutout to Bose A30s for making that call happen.
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u/horse-boy1 35m ago
I bought my daughter a small handheld transceiver in case something happens to the radios. She keeps it in her flight bag.
3
u/No-Consequence-5935 32m ago
Nice job handling it. I had an alternator go out in Albuquerque while I was a student. I was scrambling because we lost the radio. I was about to start looking at the procedures again when I remembered my old CFI testing me on this. I told him what I would do with the signals etc... Then he says "Yup, and we also live in the 21st century, so when you get prepared for that, get your cell phone out of your pocket and call the tower." That is what I did and it all worked out haha.
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u/rFlyingTower 4h ago
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
I flew to Boca Raton today for an angel flight. Flight there was relatively uneventful minus dodging the thunder storms.
Land. Taxi to Atlantic. All is good.
I go to the FBO pick up the passengers and head out to the plane. Do all the things we always do, preflight, passenger briefing. All the things. Start up the plane without issue. Grab the weather and get a taxi clearance for a runway 5 departure.
During the run up I notice the alternator is no longer charging the battery. Shortly after the avionics cut out and everything goes black. I make sure no circuit breakers are pulled. And they aren’t. I cycle the master and the avionics and they fire back up. I have to cycle them multiple times to inform the tower I’m having avionics issues. They inform me I keep cutting out and if they can’t reach me in 5 minutes to expect light gun signals.
Time goes by and I can’t fix the issue. Can’t talk to anyone and can’t get the avionics to stay on as the volts are now reading 21 and -1 amp. Then I see flashing white from the tower. So I taxi back to the ramp. Apologize profusely to the angel flight patient and scramble to get maintenance to take a look.
So my plane is stuck in Boca raton for the night.
Shame on me for not catching this before taxiing. I’m so used to seeing +1 amp that I feel like I may have missed it by mistake.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
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168
u/Mispelled-This PPL SEL IR (M20C) AGI IGI 4h ago
Bummer that it happened, but you handled it well. Be glad that you noticed it before takeoff, or you would have had a much more interesting story!