PSA. Change your batteries

[TonyK]

When my son passed his PPL check ride my wife and I gifted him a Bose headset and a nice handheld radio.  One was to save his ears and the other was to save his @ss.  He was out with his instructor working on his IR this week in our C172 when the #1 radio stopped working.  While diagnosing this small problem the #2 went dead followed by everything else in the airplane equalling a total loss of electric.  They diverted to another airport and he reached back into his bag and pulled out his nifty new handheld only to find the battery was totally dead with no spares in the airplane.  They made a uneventful nordo landing at a uncontrolled airport and sorted out the issue.  What was the first thing he did after regaling us with his exploits of peril?  Yup, you guessed it.  Changed the batteries in his handheld and put some spares in his bag.  I gave him the dad speech and let him know they don't help if they don't work and then I quietly went and changed the batteries in my handheld... 

[Hank]

My new handheld lives in the charger in the hangar, so I must remember to get it . . . . A headset adapter cord lives plugged into the radio. Yes, I too had a sudden total electrical failure on aproqch with CFII while working on IR . . . . Stuff happens, deal with it--it's better with experienced help! (CFII was an airline pilot.)

[Jeph357]

I had a complete electical outage while training with a CFI on a touch n go in vfr minimum flaps stopped coming up at 5°, at a towered airport. There was a handheld with spare batts in my bag by the end of the week. Communication looks totally different when you dont have the option. First things first fly the plane...

[MB65E]

Have a sportys handheld that i found in a box after 9years. Turned it on and the batteries were still able to transmit and receive!! The AA’s didn’t even leak. I was shocked! 
Now the two icoms I have go dead if you just look at them. 
-Matt

[neilpilot]

I decided years ago to ditch the handheld's rechargeable battery pack in favor of the AA version.  I would always carry a load of AA batteries, since they powered the flashlights and portable GPS in addition to my handheld.

I also had an external antennae jack installed in both of my Mooneys.  Makes a world of difference when you need to communicate.  Really appreciated it when I had to do an instrument letdown and approach into KDAL after a total electrical failure years ago.

[jlunseth]

I found myself in the same circumstances several years ago, except I was NORDO with my home base, KFCM, having an airshow that day. I reached into my pocket, pulled out my cell phone, and called the tower. They told me to call from the air, they would give me a clearance, and I would land by light gun signals, which is what I did. There were probably 30 or 40 warbirds, etc. all sitting on the ground to see if I would screw up the landing. The point of which is, don’t forget the radio we all carry with us everywhere we go. I do have a backup handheld just in case.

[steingar]

My handheld has an internal rechargeable battery.  I do have to remember to charge it up about once a year, usually right before Oshkosh.  Don't use it often, but when I do I'm glad I have it.

[carusoam]

Way to go dad!

Dad speeches require practice...

Dad preparation takes thought in advance...

Dad not getting caught reorganizing all his stuff, after the fact, requires dad experience...
 

It helps to be able to ask your Dad how he handled all this... Back in the day...

20 years ago... Mom and Dad delivered my first portable GPS... Xmas present... 
 

Go Dads!

Best regards,

-a-

[Ross Taylor]

I also ditched my Icon's rechargeable battery for the AA pack.  It seems to last for years that way, ready for emergency use.  I made the change after finding my rechargeable pack dead when I needed it...

[kortopates]

Seems like loss of electrical power is right of passage for all of us and one fairly early in out flying careers. Right after that, when we think we're better prepared its the dead portable we learn from again.

My first time was departing at night into IMC, luckily ceilings were 3 or 4K and the radio went silent shortly after raining the gear. That night my portable radio had juice and I was cancelling IFR and returning to the field in no time after I got the gear down. But what I was most embarrassed about is that I had to be taxing and idling without an alternator with the battery discharging for quite some time and I never noticed it. That woke me up, we can't afford to ignore our instruments like. What if it was my oil pressure - things could have turned out much worse! Better technology in newer planes and modern analyzers all help, and I'd like to think I have much better situational awareness these days because of learning from my prior poor experience. Still learning too....   

[Raptor05121]

I have the Yaesu FTA-550L which the -L suffix denotes Li-Ion rechargeable battery. I pull it out once every other month to charge it.

[EricJ]

Thanks for the reminder.   Mine were due.

[Missile=Awesome]

I had a sordid ordeal with loss of battery.  Flying into Lansing Mi and lost comms.  (My Generator had failed). I could NOT reach Lansing on handheld, but another plane relayed my issue and had uneventful landing.  I pulled battery and trickle charged it.  On return I communicated and then turned everything off after departure.  Turned everything on at arrival.

I replaced analog volt/amp gauges with digital that had discharge light after the incident.

Going to look into the AA ICon battery pack.  Go Mooneyspace!

[neilpilot]

5 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

I could NOT reach Lansing on handheld,

If you don’t yet have access to an external antenna connection consider adding a splitter. A relatively inexpensive upgrade that can give your handheld the range of a panel com.

[DXB]

31 minutes ago, neilpilot said:

If you don’t yet have access to an external antenna connection consider adding a splitter. A relatively inexpensive upgrade that can give your handheld the range of a panel com.

Good idea - I had this put in professionally last time I had avionics work done.

Word of caution - afterwards I learned the hard way that my #2 com had drastically reduced reception range after the antenna splitter was installed.

Where and how the antenna line gets split really matters and even a pro can mess it up inadvertently. 

[jaylw314]

On 8/8/2020 at 8:59 AM, neilpilot said:

I decided years ago to ditch the handheld's rechargeable battery pack in favor of the AA version.  I would always carry a load of AA batteries, since they powered the flashlights and portable GPS in addition to my handheld.

I also had an external antennae jack installed in both of my Mooneys.  Makes a world of difference when you need to communicate.  Really appreciated it when I had to do an instrument letdown and approach into KDAL after a total electrical failure years ago.

+1 on that.  I'm guessing nobody uses their handheld radio frequently enough to warrant rechargeable batteries, when alkaline batteries can last years without discharging (and when AA's power a bunch of other things in the cockpit)

[jlunseth]

4 hours ago, neilpilot said:

If you don’t yet have access to an external antenna connection consider adding a splitter. A relatively inexpensive upgrade that can give your handheld the range of a panel com.

I did that also. It goes to my Comm 2 antenna. Haven’t ever used it though. My one electrical out was before the handheld. The flaw in my system is that the pilot who is in charge of recharging the batteries periodically, fails in his responsibility. After this, I think I am going to have to put it on the maintenance spreadsheet.

[Seth]

On 8/8/2020 at 11:59 AM, neilpilot said:

I decided years ago to ditch the handheld's rechargeable battery pack in favor of the AA version.  I would always carry a load of AA batteries, since they powered the flashlights and portable GPS in addition to my handheld.

I also had an external antennae jack installed in both of my Mooneys.  Makes a world of difference when you need to communicate.  Really appreciated it when I had to do an instrument letdown and approach into KDAL after a total electrical failure years ago.

I purchased the AA pack for my icom so that I would always have an AA backup if needed. I tend to use the handheld to get IFR clearance when on the ground prior to starting my engine.

-Seth