A Good Reason to Fly with your Ipad and Stratus On

[Yooper Rocketman]

A 2.5 years ago, at our LOBO (Lancair Owners & Builders Organization) Convention in Henderson NV, one of our board members did a slide show presentation about a recent event that had happened after coming out of maintenance in Idaho.  He departed Idaho on a flight to Phoenix and about an hour and a half into the flight the Evolution starting having A/P control issues.  Other symptoms surfaced (it's been a couple years, I don't remember all the smaller details) so he decided to head back to Boise, hoping to make it there before dark (he didn't).  As he was trying to figure out what was going on he noticed upon reaching 14k, descending into Boise, that the altimeter was indicating he was staying level at 14K.  Boise Approach asked him to continue his descent for his arrival and although he felt he was descending, he was still showing 14K.  It was dark and another call came from Approach to descend.  At one point he was straining to see out the window and he spotted a farm with their lights on; he was within 1k' to 2k' of the ground.  He climbed back to what he estimated was near 5k' and once he had the lights of Boise in sight, he managed a compete VFR arrival.  All this time the controller insistently telling him he was too high!.  The pilot took a picture of the panel showing him at 14k sitting on the ramp of Boise Airport.

They found a static line had been routed to close to hot turbine engine components and had melted after 1.5 hours in flight.  He completed his flight in daylight the next day.

His take away  was he will never fly again without his Stratus and Ipad running as back up.  It will always give you ground speed (something better than nothing) and altitude, uncorrected for Barometric Pressure, but will never have you off far enough that the info is not valuable.  Had he been using his Ipad and Stratus during that flight, he would have never been that close to the ground in the dark.

My Stratus and Ipad are go / no-go items for any flight for me, even when requiring charging in flight on long trips, after hearing this story.

Tom

[N201MKTurbo]

Ah yes, I remember the days when all you needed were current paper charts.

[EricJ]

My stratux also has an AHRS in it and makes a decent AI backup if I lose the entire panel somehow.   They're definitely a good kit to have along for backup.

[Ragsf15e]

6 hours ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

A 2.5 years ago, at our LOBO (Lancair Owners & Builders Organization) Convention in Henderson NV, one of our board members did a slide show presentation about a recent event that had happened after coming out of maintenance in Idaho.  He departed Idaho on a flight to Phoenix and about an hour and a half into the flight the Evolution starting having A/P control issues.  Other symptoms surfaced (it's been a couple years, I don't remember all the smaller details) so he decided to head back to Boise, hoping to make it there before dark (he didn't).  As he was trying to figure out what was going on he noticed upon reaching 14k, descending into Boise, that the altimeter was indicating he was staying level at 14K.  Boise Approach asked him to continue his descent for his arrival and although he felt he was descending, he was still showing 14K.  It was dark and another call came from Approach to descend.  At one point he was straining to see out the window and he spotted a farm with their lights on; he was within 1k' to 2k' of the ground.  He climbed back to what he estimated was near 5k' and once he had the lights of Boise in sight, he managed a compete VFR arrival.  All this time the controller insistently telling him he was too high!.  The pilot took a picture of the panel showing him at 14k sitting on the ramp of Boise Airport.

They found a static line had been routed to close to hot turbine engine components and had melted after 1.5 hours in flight.  He completed his flight in daylight the next day.

His take away  was he will never fly again without his Stratus and Ipad running as back up.  It will always give you ground speed (something better than nothing) and altitude, uncorrected for Barometric Pressure, but will never have you off far enough that the info is not valuable.  Had he been using his Ipad and Stratus during that flight, he would have never been that close to the ground in the dark.

My Stratus and Ipad are go / no-go items for any flight for me, even when requiring charging in flight on long trips, after hearing this story.

Tom

The gps iPads display gps altitude and groundspeed even without the stratus too, so that’s definitely helpful! Good story.

[Skates97]

2 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

The gps iPads display gps altitude and groundspeed even without the stratus too, so that’s definitely helpful! Good story.

The Androids do and you don't have to pay extra for the cellular version. 

[Hank]

9 minutes ago, Skates97 said:

The Androids do and you don't have to pay extra for the cellular version. 

A man after my own heart! I prefer to eat my apples, preferably yellow ones.

[GeeBee]

Well let's run this to a Mooney M20 long body. Non-pressurized fuselage so if the static line is some how compromised, open alternate static valve. Check. Ok, let's say that fails, reach up under the panel and tear off the static tube to the standby altimeter(it's at the bottom and easily reachable), check. 

 

[skykrawler]

Static line in the engine compartment?   If it was the static line then the altitude encoder would have been transmitting a similar "stuck" pressure altitude and ATC would have told him to turn off his altitude reporting.

[N201MKTurbo]

20 minutes ago, skykrawler said:

Static line in the engine compartment?   If it was the static line then the altitude encoder would have been transmitting a similar "stuck" pressure altitude and ATC would have told him to turn off his altitude reporting.

How would ATC know it was wrong? Usually they tell you that when your altimeter disagrees with the encoder altitude. When they agree, like in the OPs story, How would they know? They didn't, that's why they kept telling him to descend.

[N201MKTurbo]

So in my plane, If I set a particular power and maintain a particular airspeed, I know that I will be descending, on average at a particular vertical speed. If the instruments indicate otherwise, I would know something is wrong.

One thing to keep in mind, if the plane would have descended from 14000 to ~2000 with a plugged static line and then opened the alt static source, it would have damaged the instruments. If it had electronic sensors, they would probably withstand it without damage.

[GeeBee]

In a pressurized airplane there should be a separate static line and source for the alternate static source. Either a poor build design or the pilot did not understand his systems.

[Echo]

I hand fly. Only wing leveler as old Brittain heading bug is wonky. My primary nav aide is IPad mini on yoke mount with Garmin pilot supplemented by gdl 50. I love the info from flight planning though air port info and weather. Low/high tech  

[GeeBee]

One other thing. If all else fails, go to the RAIM page on your navigator and your GPS altitude is right there. 

[Yooper Rocketman]

If you guys desire, I may be able to get his presentation.  It's been 2.5 years.  I'm not sure I got all the details correct.  My intent with the post was the value of having stand alone equipment, not dependent on ANY system of the airplane, be it power, static, avionics or otherwise, still part of your back up plan.  Until I heard the presentation, my Stratus became a bench ornament in my hangar.

A last note, with the engine and batteries torn off the Lancair Turbine, on Christmas morning (2021) with my wife sitting on the wing freezing with a foot of snow on the ground, S&R couldn't find us.  I looked in the cockpit and saw my Stratus still blinking on the glare shield so I grabbed my Ipad, put my finger on the "blinking airplane" and gave the 911 dispatcher my long and lat's.  Twenty minutes later S&R were loading us up and hauling us out of the north country woods.  Nine months prior to that day was when I learned I should have my Stratus and Ipad as part of my flight kit.

I just thought if one other pilot found my advise useful (and applied it), it was worth posting and having a few "question my foggy details".  

Tom

[EricJ]

26 minutes ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

If you guys desire, I may be able to get his presentation.  It's been 2.5 years.  I'm not sure I got all the details correct.  My intent with the post was the value of having stand alone equipment, not dependent on ANY system of the airplane, be it power, static, avionics or otherwise, still part of your back up plan.  Until I heard the presentation, my Stratus became a bench ornament in my hangar.

A last note, with the engine and batteries torn off the Lancair Turbine, on Christmas morning (2021) with my wife sitting on the wing freezing with a foot of snow on the ground, S&R couldn't find us.  I looked in the cockpit and saw my Stratus still blinking on the glare shield so I grabbed my Ipad, put my finger on the "blinking airplane" and gave the 911 dispatcher my long and lat's.  Twenty minutes later S&R were loading us up and hauling us out of the north country woods.  Nine months prior to that day was when I learned I should have my Stratus and Ipad as part of my flight kit.

I just thought if one other pilot found my advise useful (and applied it), it was worth posting and having a few "question my foggy details".  

Tom

Glad that worked out.

Did the ELT not help?

[Yooper Rocketman]

Just now, EricJ said:

Did the ELT not help?

Nope.  406 but antenna broke off.

[Ragsf15e]

45 minutes ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

If you guys desire, I may be able to get his presentation.  It's been 2.5 years.  I'm not sure I got all the details correct.  My intent with the post was the value of having stand alone equipment, not dependent on ANY system of the airplane, be it power, static, avionics or otherwise, still part of your back up plan.  Until I heard the presentation, my Stratus became a bench ornament in my hangar.

A last note, with the engine and batteries torn off the Lancair Turbine, on Christmas morning (2021) with my wife sitting on the wing freezing with a foot of snow on the ground, S&R couldn't find us.  I looked in the cockpit and saw my Stratus still blinking on the glare shield so I grabbed my Ipad, put my finger on the "blinking airplane" and gave the 911 dispatcher my long and lat's.  Twenty minutes later S&R were loading us up and hauling us out of the north country woods.  Nine months prior to that day was when I learned I should have my Stratus and Ipad as part of my flight kit.

I just thought if one other pilot found my advise useful (and applied it), it was worth posting and having a few "question my foggy details".  

Tom

I’m not trying to be a smartass, but that was a great use of lat/long, so people should also know they’re available on your nonstratus devices like gps enabled ipad or on your phone.  The phone is a great FF backup device.  Touch the bottom of your map screen, select current coords.  See picture I just did of my phone.  Now everyone can target my kitchen with a JDAM.

[McMooney]

On 9/21/2023 at 11:04 PM, Hank said:

A man after my own heart! I prefer to eat my apples, preferably yellow ones.

Green apples are the best

[Fly Boomer]

43 minutes ago, Ragsf15e said:

I’m not trying to be a smartass, but that was a great use of lat/long, so people should also know they’re available on your nonstratus devices like gps enabled ipad or on your phone.  The phone is a great FF backup device.  Touch the bottom of your map screen, select current coords.  See picture I just did of my phone.

I'm not trying to be a smartass either, but I would point out that the "instrument panel" must be turned on using this button at the top of the map

Also, you get more instruments in landscape orientation.

 

[Ragsf15e]

1 hour ago, Fly Boomer said:

I'm not trying to be a smartass either, but I would point out that the "instrument panel" must be turned on using this button at the top of the map

Also, you get more instruments in landscape orientation.

 

True, I already had it turned on, so didn’t need that step.  Landscape seems not so good on a tiny phone screen, but yes, I use that on the iPad with the instrument panel on. Thanks.

[Fly Boomer]

2 minutes ago, Ragsf15e said:

True, I already had it turned on, so didn’t need that step.  Landscape seems not so good on a tiny phone screen, but yes, I use that on the iPad with the instrument panel on. Thanks.

On my iPad Mini, I don't see the lat/long in portrait orientation, but when I turn it to landscape, the lat/long is the last thing on the right.  That said, it's completely configurable. 

[Ragsf15e]

18 minutes ago, Fly Boomer said:

On my iPad Mini, I don't see the lat/long in portrait orientation, but when I turn it to landscape, the lat/long is the last thing on the right.  That said, it's completely configurable. 

It’s because you have too many selected to fit in portrait and lat/long is over to the right. Either select less or move it left and you should have it in both.  As you said, very Selectable.

[Fly Boomer]

35 minutes ago, Ragsf15e said:

It’s because you have too many selected to fit in portrait and lat/long is over to the right. Either select less or move it left and you should have it in both.  As you said, very Selectable.

Documentation says:

"On the iPad, six instruments are displayed in portrait mode and eight in landscape mode.  On iPhones, up to five instruments are displayed in portrait and eight in landscape.  Smaller iPhone’s display four instruments in portrait and six in landscape.  The instruments on the right and left ends of the instrument panel in landscape mode are hidden when the device is rotated to portrait."

I seem to recall reading something about different behaviour on iPads with different screen sizes, but I can't find it on short notice.