GEN VS ALT.. Never Again for you

[67M20F]

Ok here’s a never again for you all….

 

I agreed to make a flight for a friend from bear lake to Torrington WY to a livestock auction that I had wanted to go to for years so when I had the chance I jumped at splitting the cost’s.

 

I woke up at 6 to take off from Heber to Bear Lake airport, when I left Heber I thought that I was picking up two others so I topped the tanks, flew the 40 mins to Bear Lake, and upon arrival I saw there were three. So I asked the man that I had made the arrangements with if all three were going and he said “ya you told me you had four seats” And I did tell him that thinking if he were taking a fourth then I could take much less fuel and all would be good. I told him that I thought there was only going to be two so I filled all 64 gal of fuel and hadn’t burned much of anything on the flight up, but it would be OK, should have told them to leave the fourth behind but didn’t want to disappoint someone. So we loaded up and took off, using about 4,500ft of a 6K runway. It was very hot and my climb rate was right about 400FPM MAX. Had to circle to climb high enough to get out of the valley and started the trek east. We landed at Torrington WY with no big deal other than being much slower than I planed. And a 20KT crosswind that I hadn’t done with the plane that heavy.

 

We got out of the auction house at 4PM and went strait to the airport were I fueled the airplane and got it ready for the flight, I put it at 50 gal thinking that would be plenty to get us to Bear Lake so that we would be as light as possible. We took off and right after rotation a small bird went through my prop arch and struck the windshield right at my face and I ducked. The guys behind me ducked too, they said if I was trying to get out of the way they wanted to move too.

 

The climb out was very slow and thought for a moment that it wasn’t going to work after being startled by the bird strike and wondering if he hit the prop, but I had no choice we were flying if I wanted to or not, came close to a few water towers and got a good climb going headed back to Bear Lake.

 

After about 45mins in flight I saw that the GEN had failed, we were on flight following so I called them to tell them what had happened. I told them that I was going on as planned and that I would be turning off all equipment that wasn’t necessary, off goes the no. 2 com radio, the transponder, the fuel flow, the engine analyzer, everything but the 430 and would be –D- Bear Lake. They told me that was all good and offered an alt airport, but I told them that all was OK and we would just go on (didn’t want the first flight for the pass, to be a bad one and wanted them to think this was no big deal and all would be fine, BIG MISTAKE) We flew on hit a few rotors off of a few mountains, but all in all a smooth flight.

 

Once I saw Bear Lake airport, I trimmed the airplane and went in as fast as I could by this time 2.5+hrs later after the gen gave up the go, I wanted on the ground NOW..

 

It was dusk at the time we landed and it wasn’t a big deal, and the guy that run the airport told me that, at that time at dark the runways lit themselves and they were not pilot controlled. ( I was worried that we would land after dark, and I wouldn’t be able to find the airport without turning on the lighting.)

 

So silly me had to work the next day, and had to get back to Heber, calling someone that late to come and get me wasn’t an option and a rental car wasn’t available. So I (being young and dumb) asked if he had a battery charger, and he said yes so I pulled the battery out and put it on the charger for about 1HR.

 

By now its black and I feel like I have no choice but to go back with no lighting, so that’s what I did….

 

In hind site I should have killed three others from my decisions, and I always think of this, it scared me enough that it happened a year ago and this is the first I have talked about it (please don’t tell my wife about this) I flew to Heber as fast as I could turned on the lighting as soon as I could and kept it lit. Until I was on the ground, in the hanger I just sat and looked at my wonderful Mooney that despite my very bad judgments that day got me through it not cause I knew what I was doing but because she loved me…..

 

I truly believe that the confidence in my airplane helped me through and to keep flying no matter what was wrong is what saved me on that scary night flight, no lights, just one comm., black outside and in….

 

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest; many many big mistakes were made and trust me I learned more on this flight than my previous 400 hrs…

 

John

 

Now tell me if you would rather have a gen or an ALT……

[rob]

I don't see how an alternator would have made any difference here. Regardless of if it's a generator or an Alternator, if it's failed, it's not going to output anything.

[67M20F]

Cause this was my 3rd gen failure, I could write two more of these not as scarry but still not the best. All turned out ok tho...

Alternator's are more reliable. If they weren't that's not what the new mooney would come with. I also have replaced the regulator.

[flight2000]

I guess that would be a good question.  What is the actual failure rate for generators and alternators.  If either fails, your still stuck with a battery holding whatever charge is left.

Glad everything worked out in the end and your still here to tell the story.

Brian