John Herrera wrote:
>
> About generatorless operation:
>
> I don't know if this story counts; I'll let you decide. I swear it didn't
> happen to me, although I have done quite my share of TR3 driving with no
> generator output, thank you.
>
> One of the local Airport Bums flew his tatty Cessna 150 from Maryland to
> Arizona. Somewhere over Oklahoma his generator gave up the ghost. Output
> fuse blew we found later. He continued on to Arizona, flew around the West,
> and came back to Maryland without fixing it.
>
> Of course, the magnetos don't need electrical power to provide the spark,
> and the 150 doesn't have much of an electrical system to begin with, but it
> might be a record. He had a hand-held radio and navigated by following
> highways. Maybe there were some no-flap landings involved; I didn't ask.
Hmmm. When I worked in Massachusetts, the company I worked for shared a
building with another, and I did quite a bit of after-hours fabrication
for them, so I talked to their guys quite a bit. One of their employees
was an ex-Navy F-14 avionics repairman. Any time there was work done on
the plane, the repairman had to fly in the back seat for a check ride.
One day, a colonel from the Marine detachment on the carrier insisted on
taking his plane up. The reply was something like, "buh, buh, buh, but,
sir, neither of the generators are working." "Nah, doesn't matter, we'll
run on the batteries!"
He then went on to say that the batteries were quite small and were more
for load-balancing and emergency use, and without turning on the radar,
would last for perhaps twenty minutes before everything stopped cold. He
tried to explain this to the pilot, who was adamant. Finally, he said to
me, "I told him I couldn't go with him." The indignant colonel demanded
to know why. "Because someone has to stay here to write your family and
explain." Said he got a letter of commendation from the carrier captain.
As for me, I'd sure want everything working, going up, staying up and
coming down. After all, one can't just pull off to the side of the road
and park it....
Cheers.
--
Michael D. Porter
Roswell, NM (yes, _that_ Roswell)
[mailto:mporter@zianet.com]
Don't let people drive you crazy when you know it's within walking
distance.
|