Curt
That is really what I should have done. Landing with flaps is something I had been taking for granted. I would do it that way the next time. Shut off Bat 1 and save it for the flaps. Especially in VFR
In reply to:
In my flying career too much emphasis in training is placed on troubleshooting electrical problems aloft versus getting on the ground to figure things out. The Canadian accident report on SwissAir 111 is the case study for this issue.
Bob,
Thanks. I couldn’t remember the name of the accident report, but that’s the one.
Flying an airplane while trying to troubleshoot an electrical problem is not an easy task. When you get a failure such as the one Greg experienced, the regulations require you to terminate the flight (as soon as practicable). This does not mean you have to land in a farmer’s field or 20 minutes short of your destination (or as Curt mentioned, flying over an overcast to reach a VFR descent). The KOL in the POH indicates that you need the Alternator 1 for both VFR and IFR flight. So the aircraft becomes unairworthy when you lose Alternator 1. Interestingly, though, Alternator 2 is only needed for IFR flight.
In reply to:
Alt 2 does not cross over and pick up any main bus elements. Would be nice if it did, but does not. I do not know enough to explain why and maybe others can fill us in on the details.
I think ALT 2 could power everything, but then it would have to be full-sized, 60A, with all the weight that implies.
I think the idea was a minimal (20A) backup JUST sufficient to power those few items necessary for survival. The diode is there specifically to prevent the smaller ALT 2/BAT2 combination from being depleted powering non-essential items.
update to my previous post. The problem was thought to be the MCU. After it was replace it did not correct the problem. Now we are replacing the alternator. Hopefully this fixes the problem.
Heads up, if it turns out to be the alternator, I never got a warning light that alt 1 was not working. If any of you depend on the warning light DON’T. Make the amp meters part of your instrument scan along with oil, etc.