Ah today back to France, more precisely in Corsica where is waiting my wife, no doubt that I cannot miss this date, even if the weather today seems not so good, but I consider that would be enough for a VFR flight, afterall is it not nice to enjoy the landscapes of Sardegna & Corsica ? 🙂
After check the meteo , I decide to take this following flightplan
FLIGHTPLAN - IFR FP6930/FPAMR OE-FBD LICJ-LFKT ------------------------------------------------------------------- Palermo (Palermo/Italy) to Corte (Corte/France) DEP: LICJ/02 INIT ALT: FL140 PAX: 1 ARR: LFKT/12 F/P DIST: 305 NM CARGO: 102 ZFW: 3717 ALTN: LFKB / LIEO TOW: 4055 TIME: 09/25/2018 06:30z --> 09/25/2018 09:30z ETE : 03:00 ------------------------------------------------------------------- FUEL CORR ENDUR CRUISE ....... 178 ........ --:-- TRIP ......... 204 ........ 03:00 EXTRA ........ 102 ........ 01:00 FINAL RESV ... 134 ........ --:-- RELEASE ...... 338 ........ --:-- ------------------------------------------------------------------- ATC ROUTE: SID: () TRP CAR CAL ORF ALG FGI STAR: () ------------------------------------------------------------------- WEATHER BRIEFING LICJ 250420Z VRB01KT CAVOK 21/18 Q1017 No METAR for LFKT available. LFKB 250430Z AUTO 01004KT 320V040 9999 FEW046 19/12 Q1024 NOSIG LIEO 250420Z 02013KT 340V050 9999 -RA BKN025 21/17 Q1021
I would encounter some clouds, and maybe some rain if the raining layer move faster than forecasted from East to weast, before Ajaccio. I have to dont forget that before to reach Sardegna there is this temporary restricted area for military usage, and i would have to be under the 5000 ft, so lets choose a little security and afterall fly at 4000 ft is not so bad even if it’s risk to be boring over the sea, maybe a little lower as the clouds floor is around 4500 fr. We will see !
After the airport of Trapani, I continue from the VOR of TRP with a heading of 298° to catch later the VOR CAR (Cagliari)
In middle of the sea I know that I continue my current course I will reach the South of Sardegna, but few minutes later I noticed that i made a big mistake !
I forgot to engage the Alternators, how i made this basic error ?!
I decide to continue as the motors are OK and now I am closer to the Sardaignia rivers, afterall I decide to do a VFR flight , so …that’s a good occasion to practice my Visual skills. I dont forget toswtich my transponder on 7600 frequency to indicate my electrical failure onboard.
As i dont have enough electrical resources I switch off the different non usefull instruments and equipments for my flight. To be sure to save the few power I disconnect the following circuit breakers.
Now it’s time to decide what to do. I cannot follow my initial route prepared, so bye bye the west coasts of Sardegna, the safer solution is to follow the East coast then when I will arrive between Sardegna and Corsica, according to the weather I will choose to pass by Ajaccio if the East side of island seems cloudy or else is the meteo condition are correct I will choose to continue to follow the coast until Solenzara area (and take care to dont fly over this military airport) then turn on the left to join Corte. There are enough visual points on this route to dont be lost, and even of the sky is cloudy I can follow the coast to a relative low and safe altitude. So first let’s continue and prepare my charts ! If i continue my current heading of 300° I should arrive to Sardegna for sure.
Finally the sardegna coast !
Lack of luck few while I am approaching of Corte, I just have time to manually move down the Gear thanks to the Gear extension trigger. As I dont have electricity no hope to think to deploy the flaps, I will have to land with a low speed as much as possible but fair enough because I dont forget there is no engine anymore…
Finally …..
Effective VFR route on chart
Checks requested
The procedure was to reactivate the following breakers : PFD,MFD, INST LT and make snapshots and deactivate the breakers.
