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Got to see the airport fire truck


Austintatious

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Coming in after dark last night, just as I was turned over to tower, my panel lights flickered and then went out... I thought "ok, that's interesting" .  Then I got a whiff of that gawd awful electrical burning smell... That got my dander up!  I got out the flashlight and started looking around real fast for smoke... didn't see any but I quickly turned off the panel lights and told tower about the situation.  They had me on a left downwind to land south, but cleared me straight in.

 

I didn't declare since it was VFR and I was 3 min from landing, but they still rolled the truck for me and they followed me to parking.  Landed with a flashlight in my mouth... Got to see the fire truck up close. fun night

 

PS... I am glad I didnt go full panic and turn the master off.. I could see a pilot getting in a panic to stop a potential fire by doing so and then landing gear up after putting the un-powered gear handle  to the down position.

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Glad it ended well! Hope the resolution is simple and quick.

So far my only smoke-in-the-cockpit experience was on the ground, just after engine start. Put her away again . . . for three months. But landing at a controlled field after dark with no lights is an unusual experience, too.

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That's no fun.  We recently had a similar problem in a Cherokee.  Smoke with no clear cause.  Luckily we were on on the ground and able to troubleshoot.  Found it was coming from the Com 2 radio.  Strange thing is even though it was smoking, it was still receiving the ATIS!  Was able to get home with the other radio and pulled it and sent it in for repair.  Still a scary sight seeing smoke in the cockpit even when it's on the ground.

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That is scary, but a good ending to this.  I’ve had two experiences with smoke in the cockpit, first I was about 10, with my whole family in Dad’s Cherokee.  It took seconds to fill the cockpit with that ozone smell and smoke.  Second was this winter, just left the pattern with my CFI in a rented 172.  Heard an audible pop, smoke puff, and comm 2 breaker popped.  I was calling to turn back and since the breaker popped, it was just a small amount of magic smoke I didn’t declare but tower did ask.  
 

A student first solo at my flight school did declare for smoke once last fall because as he was taking off he hit some balloons that got away from someone at a hotel just off the runway.  Right in the cowling, somehow damaged a heater tubing, and that was that. They rolled trucks and everything for that and he got his shirt cut when he got back to the school. 

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Nice pic, Mike!

I have not seen a blow torch hole downstream of a turbo before...

By then, the pressure is off, and things have cooled a bit...

And the usual bad guy is the V-bands further upstream...

Holy cow!

What were the signs of the failure?

CO alarm?

Vibration?

Aroma of a meltdown occurring?

Best regards,

-a-

 

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Just outside the FAF in the soup, an "ALTERNATOR FAIL" message displayed with a puff of smoke appearing in my (copilot) footwell. Immediately, we put on the standby emerg. bus, notified tower the option would now be full stop landing, put the gear down, shot the approach and landed. Never bothered to look at CO meter, as it is what it was. Never noticed any weird smells until the puff of smoke. Exhaust tone didnt change much. The cause of the failure was an incorrectly installed primary wire from the main alternator. This could have put new meaning into "flaming lawn dart"

Mooney issued SBM20-340A shortly afterwards

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