I Learned About Flying From That

[alextstone]

For those of you who read Flying magazine, the title of this post may be familiar.  It's also the title of a long running article in Flying mag that highlights sometimes harrowing flying experiences that teach a valuable lesson, often written from the viewpoint of the pilot who finds him or herself in an unexpectedly difficult and potentially dangerous situation.  I'm a big fan of these articles.  This past weekend, I had my own "I Learned About Flying From That" experience that I think may be of some value to others so here you go:

About 18 months ago, I purchased a 1995 Bravo.  I've reported extensively in other threads the litany of deferred maintenance I worked through.  Recently, I began to feel confident that the mechanical issues were largely settled and I began to focus on the avionics.  Among other things, I upgraded from an Aspen 1000 Pro to a MAX.  I had numerous installation issues that were, as of the middle of December, solved (to the best of my knowledge) and the new Max unit was functioning as expected. 

Last weekend, my wife and I flew from KPIB to KTEX (Hattiesburg MS to Telluride CO) to ski for the weekend with friends.  The flight over was SLOW (7:30 flight time, two legs, with strong headwinds) and EPIC!  Here are a couple of photos and a link to the landing at Telluride (be sure to click the link, it's a pretty neat view of the runway on approach):

 

 

LINK TO LANDING:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/85qt24kp0cuzcq0/video.mp4?dl=0

 

 

We enjoyed the weekend skiing and planned our return on Sunday to include a direct flight back at FL230.  We made it back in 4:17 in one leg!:

 

At about the Texas - Louisiana border (see photo below), as expected, we encountered a large area of solid IMC below with low ceilings all the way to our destination.  I therefore planned for an ILS approach at KPIB. 

As we neared KPIB, the weather was reported as 6 mile visibility and 500 ft ceilings with light rain / mist.  I set up both NAV 1 and NAV 2 (Localizer Only) along with the Garmin GTN 750 GPS for the ILS 18 Approach so I would have ample backup.  As I turned from my heading of 110 to the final approach course of 181, the Aspen flashed an "Cross Check Attitude" message and the SV / HSI continued to turn past my heading.  In that moment, it took all I had to ignore what I was seeing on the Aspen and revert to the other instruments.  I managed to ignore what my eyes were seeing on the Aspen and I continued the approach as a Localizer only approach following the Nav 2 CDI and using the GPS as confirmation.  All the while, the Aspen continued to be a MAJOR distraction.  Flipping the power switch off to the Aspen did no good as it simply reverted to the backup battery.  I chose at that point to "fly the plane" and ignore the obviously erroneous Aspen display as best I could.  I broke out at 800 feet with a huge sigh of relief.

AFTER landing, I remembered that the proper way to power down the Aspen is to hold the REV button for approximately 5 seconds.  So, what I learned from this flight was:

1.  ALWAYS set up EVERY navigation aid you have available for your phase of flight ESPECIALLY the approach (I did this properly).
2.  Understand and practice failure modes of avionics, knowing reflexively how to power them down (I did not do this properly).

It so happened that I made a photo of the diagnostics page of the Aspen MAX right after the install in December (during which a new RSM was installed as well) and this one, according to Aspen, showed a normal status for the RSM (Remote Sensor Module).  The second photo I made of the diagnostics page today demonstrated that the RSM had somehow failed - "infant mortality" was the label applied.  I am grateful it was not "pilot mortality".  Aspen is very helpful as always in handling this situation with a replacement RSM.  

So, yea, I learned about flying from that!  Be safe, and plan for failures!

[daytonabch04]

Interesting trip but I’m sure it was a blast. Glad you trusted your instinct at the end. Did you use TKS at all?

[alextstone]

Interesting trip but I’m sure it was a blast. Glad you trusted your instinct at the end. Did you use TKS at all?

I primed and ran the TKS as I descended into the cloud deck but it turned out to be unnecessary.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[carusoam]

Sweet!

The video is awesome.

And thanks for sharing the nav equipment failure... and off button details...

That can be a bit distracting on an approach...

Best regards,

-a-

[EricJ]

Experiences like that are always good to have when they're behind you.    Glad you got to write about it here!

 

[elimansour]

Did you determine why the Aspen failed? 

[alextstone]

6 minutes ago, elimansour said:

Did you determine why the Aspen failed? 

Yes, it was a defective RSM...the RSM was replaced when the MAX upgrade was done so it too was brand new.  Aspen has already authorized a replacement at no cost of course. 

[Bravoman]

 Alex, why didn’t you  have your number 2 NAV set up for the ILS  as well? In my mooney , I have a 650 connected to the Aspen as number one, and a 430 with a standard GI 106 as number two.  When flying an ILS , I always make sure that the approach is set up and activated on both for redundancy. 

[alextstone]

15 minutes ago, Bravoman said:

 Alex, why didn’t you  have your number 2 NAV set up for the ILS  as well? In my mooney , I have a 650 connected to the Aspen as number one, and a 430 with a standard GI 106 as number two.  When flying an ILS , I always make sure that the approach is set up and activated on both for redundancy. 

@Bravoman I did have the 2 Nav set up but it is configured for localizer only.....I also had the GPS set up for the ILS approach "overlay".  Even with all of that, my point is that having the Aspen indicating in a failure mode front and center is very distracting (I had synthetic vision going as well which made matters worse).  I am suggesting that it's a good idea to know that the Aspen can only be powered down with the REV button on the unit and not by pulling the breaker or by flipping the panel switch due to the internal battery backup.   

[David Lloyd]

It is nearly impossible to ignore the display of a failed instrument.  Find a way to cover it up.  Years ago I had a vacuum pump fail during vectors for the ILS at Little Rock.  Weather was about 500-2.  My wife without request ripped half the cover from an approach book and handed to me to cover the attitude indicator.  Hmmm.  Wonder where she learned that?

[alextstone]

3 minutes ago, David Lloyd said:

It is nearly impossible to ignore the display of a failed instrument.  Find a way to cover it up.  Years ago I had a vacuum pump fail during vectors for the ILS at Little Rock.  Weather was about 500-2.  My wife without request ripped half the cover from an approach book and handed to me to cover the attitude indicator.  Hmmm.  Wonder where she learned that?

Now that's a great wife!

[Mooney in Oz]

On 1/29/2020 at 2:29 PM, alextstone said:

AFTER landing, I remembered that the proper way to power down the Aspen is to hold the REV button for approximately 5 seconds.  So, what I learned from this flight was:

1.  ALWAYS set up EVERY navigation aid you have available for your phase of flight ESPECIALLY the approach (I did this properly).
2.  Understand and practice failure modes of avionics, knowing reflexively how to power them down (I did not do this properly).

It so happened that I made a photo of the diagnostics page of the Aspen MAX right after the install in December (during which a new RSM was installed as well) and this one, according to Aspen, showed a normal status for the RSM (Remote Sensor Module).  The second photo I made of the diagnostics page today demonstrated that the RSM had somehow failed - "infant mortality" was the label applied.  I am grateful it was not "pilot mortality".  Aspen is very helpful as always in handling this situation with a replacement RSM.  

So, yea, I learned about flying from that!  Be safe, and plan for failures!

Well prepared and handled following an unexpected critical failure.

In reference to the video; a nicely flown approach. Having approach lights for slope guidance in that environment is priceless.

In addition, you have a lovely looking Mooney and wife!

[alextstone]

@Mooney in Oz, Thanks for the compliments!  My wife is learning to fly and soon, she will be PIC while I sit right seat in charge of the music playlist :-)

 

[Mooney in Oz]

28 minutes ago, alextstone said:

My wife is learning to fly and soon, she will be PIC while I sit right seat in charge of the music playlist :-)

You're most welcome Alex.  I'm sure your wife will do well after having the advantage of watching and learning from you during your many trips together. 

[HXG]

Thanks for the write up Alex. 
I had 3 separate Aspen Max unit failures in less than a month in the fall in my Bravo including one complete fatal failure. 2 unit repeated failures were on IFR flights. While Aspen customer service was very good, I went back to the older trouble free pre- Max Aspen 1000 pro. No problems with the older unit. 

Personally, I lost all trust in the Max in any IMC since it’s failure modes render it useless and take away my autopilot. If the Aspen Max works for others, that’s great, but my experience with the unit led to a lot of canceled trips, cost, and frustration. The only benefit is that I became quite adept anticipating  Aspen primary failure and flying on my backup instruments. 

[alextstone]

45 minutes ago, HXG said:

Thanks for the write up Alex. 
I had 3 separate Aspen Max unit failures in less than a month in the fall in my Bravo including one complete fatal failure. 2 unit repeated failures were on IFR flights. While Aspen customer service was very good, I went back to the older trouble free pre- Max Aspen 1000 pro. No problems with the older unit. 

Personally, I lost all trust in the Max in any IMC since it’s failure modes render it useless and take away my autopilot. If the Aspen Max works for others, that’s great, but my experience with the unit led to a lot of canceled trips, cost, and frustration. The only benefit is that I became quite adept anticipating  Aspen primary failure and flying on my backup instruments. 

@HXG,  Hmm, I'm starting to lose confidence too.  I cancelled a trip to Michigan and New York over Christmas - New Year (actually flew commercial instead) because of ongoing Aspen problems.  Prior to this issue, the install failed due to a mis-match of software versions between the Aspen MAX and the EA100 which should have been easily identified at the installation.  Instead, it escalated all the way to a swap of the new MAX unit with no resolution until the SW mismatch was finally identified as the problem  - by me!.   I'm going to give it one more shot and then if this does not work, I'm going to another solution as well.  

[DXB]

On 1/28/2020 at 10:29 PM, alextstone said:

As we neared KPIB, the weather was reported as 6 mile visibility and 500 ft ceilings with light rain / mist.  I set up both NAV 1 and NAV 2 (Localizer Only) along with the Garmin GTN 750 GPS for the ILS 18 Approach so I would have ample backup.  As I turned from my heading of 110 to the final approach course of 181, the Aspen flashed an "Cross Check Attitude" message and the SV / HSI continued to turn past my heading.  In that moment, it took all I had to ignore what I was seeing on the Aspen and revert to the other instruments.  I managed to ignore what my eyes were seeing on the Aspen and I continued the approach as a Localizer only approach following the Nav 2 CDI and using the GPS as confirmation.  All the while, the Aspen continued to be a MAJOR distraction.  Flipping the power switch off to the Aspen did no good as it simply reverted to the backup battery.  I chose at that point to "fly the plane" and ignore the obviously erroneous Aspen display as best I could.  I broke out at 800 feet with a huge sigh of relief.

AFTER landing, I remembered that the proper way to power down the Aspen is to hold the REV button for approximately 5 seconds.  So, what I learned from this flight was:

1.  ALWAYS set up EVERY navigation aid you have available for your phase of flight ESPECIALLY the approach (I did this properly). [bold added]
2.  Understand and practice failure modes of avionics, knowing reflexively how to power them down (I did not do this properly).

It so happened that I made a photo of the diagnostics page of the Aspen MAX right after the install in December (during which a new RSM was installed as well) and this one, according to Aspen, showed a normal status for the RSM (Remote Sensor Module).  The second photo I made of the diagnostics page today demonstrated that the RSM had somehow failed - "infant mortality" was the label applied.  I am grateful it was not "pilot mortality".  Aspen is very helpful as always in handling this situation with a replacement RSM.  

So, yea, I learned about flying from that!  Be safe, and plan for failures!

Great post and great job handing situation - I am not proficient with your point #1 above (or #2 for that matter) and take the importance of both to heart.  The only place I might do better is always having a pad of post-it notes in my side pocket for covering stuff up 

On another note, my perfectly functional and reliable Aspen MAX Pro is currently at Aspen for the 3 amu "upgrade," and this thread gives me serious pause.  The point of my spending the money was not to have a prettier display but to have a more bullet-proof instrument (i.e. no dependence of AI/DG on pitot/static, better battery).  With the info from folks like @HXG and @alextstone, I might have gone another route.  

[alextstone]

11 minutes ago, DXB said:

Great post and great job handing situation - I am not proficient with your point #1 above (or #2 for that matter) and take the importance of both to heart.  The only place I might do better is always having a pad of post-it notes in my side pocket for covering stuff up 

On another note, my perfectly functional and reliable Aspen MAX Pro is currently at Aspen for the 3 amu "upgrade," and this thread gives me serious pause.  The point of my spending the money was not to have a prettier display but to have a more bullet-proof instrument (i.e. no dependence of AI/DG on pitot/static, better battery).  With the info from folks like @HXG and @alextstone, I might have gone another route.  

@DXB, just to clarify, the MAX upgrade unit itself has always worked.  Where I ran into trouble was the sofware mis -match between the Aspen and the EA100 (autopilot controller for the KFC150) and then with a brand new RSM going bad.  The SW for the EA100 must be version 1.2.   Mine was version 1.1.  The fundamental problem with all of these installations as I see it is that we are dealing with legacy wiring, legacy avionics  of differing brands, and hardware that increasingly relies on software that is often updated over time to run properly.  Not to mention that some avionics shops are too busy to do their best work, especially when troubleshooting is involved.

Having said all of that, when the MAX upgraded unit was functioning properly, I really appreciated the brightness of the screen, the fluidity of the SV and the way the data that was selected for editing increased in size while active for editing.  I am hopeful that by the end of next week, my install issues will be behind me.  Fingers crossed. 

[HXG]

I hope nobody else has any further issues with the Aspen Max. Most do not have problems with the Max Aspen upgrade. In my case, the EA 100 or wiring issue was suspected, but never confirmed as the cause of 2 of my 3 unit failures (frequent random in flight reboots). A third unit just completely died and resulted in loss of altitude transponder reporting in class Bravo. At that point, I had enough and went back to my old reliable pre-Max Aspen Pro 1000, which has always worked well for me. 

Edited January 30, 2020 by HXG

[bradp]

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2019/06/beechcraft-e55-baron-n664ar-fatal.html?m=1

[Eight8Victor]

@alextstone Thanks for sharing your experience. “I learned about flying from that” was the first place I would turn when my new issue of Flying arrived. I remember my heart racing and palms sweating reading through some of those stories and I always tried to imagine what I might have done in those situations. There is a lot of wisdom that can be gleaned from other pilots and their flying experiences. It would be profitable to our community if others would continue this thread with their experiences and lessos learned. 

[alextstone]

[mention=17258]alextstone[/mention]  It would be profitable to our community if others would continue this thread with their experiences and lessos learned. 

I couldn't agree more! I learn so much from the experience of others.

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[David Lloyd]

The E55 crash in Fayetteville referenced above, I knew Bill more than 40 years.  Many of those years, we worked together.  Gave him his first general aviation ride in a Mooney, 1980 or '81. Before buying the RV kit in 2007, I toured the Van's factory in Aurora, Oregon.  While in the parking lot Bill called me to say not only was he taking flying lessons, he had just bought an airplane.  First was a Grumman Tiger, then a 182, then the Baron.  The NTSB report says the trim was in the full nose down position.  Aileron and rudder trim both were not in there normal positions.  Read thru their report. Look at Flightaware, check the altitudes, the speeds.  180 Knots downwind, speed increased from level off until very near the ground.  My opinion: yes, there was an Aspen problem but that alone would not have run the electric trim to the stop without inaction of the pilot.  Aspen may or may not have been misbehaving at the time.  Did he turn the autopilot on and forget he did then try overpower the autopilot causing the auto trim to run to the stop?  Last year I flew a Bonanza with electric trim.  I memorized the position of two circuit breakers: Autopilot and Trim. Something funky going on?  Pull the breaker!

[DJE22]

On 1/31/2020 at 3:45 PM, David Lloyd said:

The E55 crash in Fayetteville referenced above, I knew Bill more than 40 years.  Many of those years, we worked together.  Gave him his first general aviation ride in a Mooney, 1980 or '81. Before buying the RV kit in 2007, I toured the Van's factory in Aurora, Oregon.  While in the parking lot Bill called me to say not only was he taking flying lessons, he had just bought an airplane.  First was a Grumman Tiger, then a 182, then the Baron.  The NTSB report says the trim was in the full nose down position.  Aileron and rudder trim both were not in there normal positions.  Read thru their report. Look at Flightaware, check the altitudes, the speeds.  180 Knots downwind, speed increased from level off until very near the ground.  My opinion: yes, there was an Aspen problem but that alone would not have run the electric trim to the stop without inaction of the pilot.  Aspen may or may not have been misbehaving at the time.  Did he turn the autopilot on and forget he did then try overpower the autopilot causing the auto trim to run to the stop?  Last year I flew a Bonanza with electric trim.  I memorized the position of two circuit breakers: Autopilot and Trim. Something funky going on?  Pull the breaker!

Thanks for this commentary. Though unrelated to the aspen discussion, it relates to the post above (Barron accident).

While reading I recalled two times (approx early 1990’s) I experienced runaway trim in my Bonanza, N29999. Once while climbing vfr out of KFCM (aircraft and autopilot checked and nothing found); and the second time climbing into IMC on a flight plan from KLSE to KPWK. First time was trim down, second event was trim up. Perhaps the only thing that saved me was the subtle extra g-effect of the up-trim momentum. I was able to disengage, then descend below the deck and fly VMC along the river back into KLSE.

The first event garnered some attention from my Avionics shop and BK. After this second event, BK sent their “super-sleuths” to evaluate; don’t recall the gents name but he was a real autopilot geek!  Many days of eval and conference calls between him, my Avionics shop and BK. In the end, no more board replacement, no servo check or replacements...it was remove and replace the full box...no questions, no charge!

I was working in the aviation industry at the time...we all knew each other. And although I am grateful for the good fortune and good service, I wonder if I’d been an occasional, unknown IFR pilot, if I would have received the benefit of that level of concern. I even wonder about my own reaction if they would have said “everything seems to check out”

what might my reaction have been? Today I am glad for that concern....the training I received to acknowledge the minor sweat beads on my hands — those little, nagging clues that help to keep me alert!