Alternator gone, battery dead, controlled airport

[MauleSkinner]

Personally, I think I'd land at the Class G airport...I don't worry about what the owner says about leaving his airplane a little ways away, and I wouldn't be excessively concerned about collateral damage due to the electrical failure unless I had a specific reason to believe otherwise.

The biggest reason for me to do so is more of a practical nature...Unless another airplane sees you circling and informs the tower, the controllers are probably not going to notice you without a pylon turn around the tower. By the time you determine that this is an appropriate action, you could land at the Class G airport, call the owner, and get yourself a ride home.

Fly safe!

David

 

[time builder]

Thanks for the research Avbug. My friend was actually able to call dispatch on his cell phone, who called tower, and sent the relay that he was cleared to land. Don't ask me how he could hear over all that noise. The mode C wasn't an issue because he had "prior permission" via the phone call.

In my case, flying out of class B, I wasn't going to push anything. The decision to land at the class G was a no-brainer though, because even though the plane was based out of class B, there was a company maintenance base out of a nearby class G, I stopped there for an hour, got it fixed and flew back.

 

[avbug]

The biggest reason for me to do so is more of a practical nature...Unless another airplane sees you circling and informs the tower, the controllers are probably not going to notice you without a pylon turn around the tower. By the time you determine that this is an appropriate action, you could land at the Class G airport, call the owner, and get yourself a ride home.

The tower is going to notice you. That's their job. An aircraft in the pattern to whom they aren't talking is going to get a light gun signal. If you don't get the signal, keep on in the pattern until you do.

My friend was actually able to call dispatch on his cell phone, who called tower, and sent the relay that he was cleared to land. Don't ask me how he could hear over all that noise. The mode C wasn't an issue because he had "prior permission" via the phone call.

Good thinking on the student's part. Considering the nature of the electrical failure, the mode C wouldn't have been an issue, anyway.

 

[MauleSkinner]

The tower is going to notice you. That's their job. An aircraft in the pattern to whom they aren't talking is going to get a light gun signal. If you don't get the signal, keep on in the pattern until you do.

Tower controllers must be more vigilant where you are...the ones I've seen have been circling for several minutes before somebody else in the pattern finally pointed them out to the tower.

Fly safe!

David

 

[avbug]

I've never had to circle. The controllers are always very quick to come up with a light gun signal...including once at Spokane when we were unable to hear the tower during an IFR departure. We got a light gun signal for departure (which I refused to accept; going lost comm before departure and accepting a light gun into a low overcast didn't seem like a good idea).

Usually the controller is faster with the light gun than the pilot is to see and recognize it.