Post by scottb on May 17, 2016 20:47:29 GMT -5
After my previous flight into Kodiak, I had a short layover, and then a hop to King Salmon. I had three more passengers and some priority mail to deliver to King Salmon, and then I would be flying back to our base in Anchorage. I had some time to kill, so I relaxed in the FBO lounge in Kodiak, doing paperwork and pre-flight for my trip to King Salmon.
Once my charter passengers arrived, I got them loaded up in the Aztec with their bags and then stuffed in the priority mail. The weather was still quite good, with favorable winds and clear skies.
Departure from Kodiak.
Having departed Kodiak, I swung around and back west over Kodiak Island toward King Salmon.
Shortly after departure, almost as soon as I reached my cruising altitude of 10,000 feet, I ran into trouble. My entire center stack of electronics just suddenly died. My nice big GTN 750 was now completely dark, and all radios out.
I didn't have any smoke or burning smells, so it didn't seem to be an electrical fire fortunately. I started messing with switches and breakers, but nothing seemed to work. Fortunately I carry a backup portable radio. I radioed my situation, and started a return to PADQ. I was barely into my flight, so a return to Kodiak was an easy solution. Also fortunate was the good weather, it would be easy to fly visually.
I didn't have a total electrical failure, my flap and gear still worked okay. I calmed my nervous passengers as I turned back to Kodiak, dropping all the altitude I had just gained.
Flying upwind of Kodiak as I drop altitude to land. Circling in it was an uneventful landing.
Even though I made the correct call, I still had to contact my company and inform them that we had a bird grounded. Plus I was now a pilot without a plane (hopefully temporarily). We also had some unhappy passengers that we would have to find other accommodations for, and the priority mail would likely go out with a competitor. Reputation and revenue lost. I cursed my bad luck, hoping it wouldn't affect my standing in my company. I had only just started flying twins, and now I was having to report a problem. Luck of the draw 
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I think I need to check my FSPassengers settings. I turned failures down before because it seemed to be causing too many by default. I think I forgot to change it again when I re-installed.
-Scott
. They are to the far right of the pedestal an black on black, so very hard to see. The flaps and gear in the Aztec are hydraulic which is why they continued to work. Glad things all worked out for you, and thanks for the good read.
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