Last landing in the US

It had to happen eventually.
The usual coastal cloud layer was building up over Montgomery airport, I was coming from the West just in between San Diego class Bravo airspace and Gillespie Delta airspace, at 2900ft, cleared to land about 8 miles from touchdown (welcome to the States!). No way to get the runway in sight, being over the remote layer (it was thin and stable at 1400 to 1600ft) with a strong sun in front of me, and the controler put me on runway 28 R as there was some other airplanes in the pattern doing touch-and-goes 28 L.
Coming back VFR with a poor visibility, when we're cleared for runway 28L, we usually follow the freeway till it leads us to the stadium, turning point to intercept the final path on a 280° heading.
Today, I was on 28R with a well-equiped plane, so I loaded up the GPS ILS approach as a back-up and help for situational awareness and put the ILS frequency 111.7 into the two VOR/ILS instruments (which had been checked and were both current). 30° interception on the LOC, and a bit later on the glide to start the descent at a constant rate. I was doing 100kt on long final, reduced to 85 as I got closer and finally 75kt with 10° flaps on short final. I touched down on the runway markers which are what we aim for, but it doesn't always work that well. Pretty happy with the result.

Some figures from those 2 months 1/2 in the States:
Just over 50 flight hours,
10 different planes flown on a total of around 5500nm (10200km ; 6300 miles).
Lowest outside in flight temperature: about 0°C, highest outside in flight temperature: 47°C,
Longuest flight in a day: 700nm (1300km),
14 States visited (California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, District of Columbia, New York State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware).

Last flight in America

Last chance to fly this week, I had planned 5 flights and had to cancel all of them due to some clouds being too low over the San Diego coastline.
The chance turned up on sunday and I went for a flight with a French friend in the desert. 4 hours between San Diego, Agua Caliente, Borrego Sprins, Ocotillo and French Valley on a shiny C172-180. No better way to end 2 months 1/2 in such an awesome country!
With a temperature up to 47°C, it wasn't cold, so to speak.

Washington DC and New York

I'm back from a week in DC and NYC, and although this isn't aviation-related apart from the Air and Space Museum visit, I thought some pictures were worth be put on the blog.
I also received my US Pilot Certificate that will replace the temporary one.

Sunset from above the clouds ...

That was on the flight Atlanta - Milwaukee - San Diego, onboard an AirTran 737-700 at 38,000ft.
The video gets interesting after a 1:22 when I zoomed in towards the clouds.

Flight to Las Vegas: Part 3 - Page and Electric Failure at Night

Back from Monument Valley for a second fuel stop in Page (KPGA), I updated my weather briefing, which was now forcasting some pretty nasty rain showers for the next one and a half to two hours. That would mean flying back just when the night sets, and so, a night arrival in Las Vegas, which would be pretty impressive from above.

Fair enough, I asked for a drive to the town center, got a coffee, and came back to the airport. Another weather briefing, not showing such a great improvement, although the rain seemed to remain North of the field, with some thunderstorm activity further away.
I asked how much an hostel would cost me for the night, around $200. ouch. A quick glimpse at the en-route weather showed some fairly high cloud ceiling, no thunderstorm anywhere near my flight path, light wind, and clear sky over Las Vegas. Just that dark cloud hanging there, north of the field.

Run to the plane, preflight checks, and that's the part where I did my job too fast.
The reason I'm making a post about this is to help others avoid doing the same silly mistake.
I did my checks faster than usual, and I didn't pay enough attention to the Circuit Breakers. One was actually popped out, or could have popped out later in flight but I will never know. It happened to be the alternator CB, which, once popped out, disengages the alternator circuit, not charging the battery, disengaging also the charging needle, and .. the low voltage light. No way (other than checking the actual CB) to know the battery was no longer charging, so to speak.

Take-off, early left turn to avoid the dark clouds, and I was soon flying in a much nicer sky.
As on the way-out from Vegas, I planned a route via Kanab airfield, only landmark on the way.
As the night was setting, the sky turned darker and darker, I was with L.A Center, they knew about my arrival into North Las Vegas KVGT, and everything was fine until ... the instruments went off. The GPS first, followed by the radios and the cockpit light, all in a sudden.
I was left with no transponder, no radio, no VOR, no cockpit light, no anticol or external light. I tooked my pocket light which was ready to use, a second light just in case, tried to make a call on L.A Center, which they actually got (and eventually called the guys at Kanab airport to ask them to turn on their beacon).

So, at that point in time, I was 5 min after the overhead of Kanab airfield. I had to think quick. No way to continue, Las Vegas is Class Bravo airspace, there's an Air Force Base to overfly, I have no transponder and no radio, that just cannot work. What were my other options? Two other fields on the way, uncontrolled, and .. no way to turn their runway lights on without a working radio.
180° to the left, carb heat on, fast descent, I had to make it to Kanab before it gets too dark. I could clearly see the village, only lights in the area, but ... it was getting really dark and I just couldn't see the airfield. I remembered it wasn't far from a parallel road, but .. where was the road? 360°, still no way to find that runway. At that moment, I was probably around one or two miles from the field ... but when it's dark, it just looks like anything else ... i.e. dark. I finally saw it, turned on a high downwind, then base, high and fast, engine on idle, when I tried to put the flaps out. Well, no electricity, no flaps. No way I was going to do another 360 with an unlit runway ... (at least, that's how it was in my minds when that happened). Still doing 85kts on short final, with a field at 5000ft ... I'm glad I had a 6000ft runway in front of me. They turned on the airfield beacon when I was about to touch down, which at least was reassuring. Not the best landing so far, followed by some pretty heavy breaking. Taxi to the apron, engine off, and .. time to get out of the plane and breath deeply, at last. God, it feels good to be back on Earth.

A great folk from the airfield helped tying down the plane, called a guy from the mechanics, drove me to a motel, picked me up in the early morning (I'm greatly thankful), and helped figuring out what the issue was. We started the engine, by hand, and that's where I finally checked the CBs. That black one, the alternator circuit breaker, was a tad bit popped out. I pushed it, and .. the needle moved ever so slightly to the right. It was charging, the battery was charging. 20 min later, engine still on idle, on the ground, I turned on the radios and .. they were working. I waited a bit, loaded my pax, and finally took-off for Las Vegas. In case we lost electric power again, I did most of the flight with no radio, no transponder nor any radionav equipment. 15 miles before entering Las Vegas class Bravo airspace, I switched everything on and let them know about what was going on. They were very helpful and put me on a direct track to the field. I finally landed on North Las Vegas concrete, drove back to the hostel to pick up my stuff, and flew back to San Diego later in the day.

So ... what if the electric failure happened later in flight? Closer to Las Vegas, with no way to switch on any of the runways lighting system, what would have my options been? The only thing I can come up with would be to go to Henderson, which is class Delta, circling over the field and awaiting for the lighting signals and a visual landing clearance. That would have been my best shot I believe.
I certainly did more than one mistake on that flight. Spending a night in a hostel shouldn't be an option in those cases. Thunderstorm activity, even when not forecast before, should be a no go if it's on the way (although it wasn't on the way here). Doing quick checks, well .. not a good idea either, whatever the reason is. Once the electric devices go off, the first thing to check would actually be the CB. When that does happen, we kind of get .. obsessed with wanting to land as soon as possible. That's how I reacted at least. I tried to stay calm, which I actually did, I remembered to make the call (since I disappeared from their radar when my transponder went off), abort the flight and turn back to the nearest field, quickly let my passengers know about what was going on and the precautionary landing, but I forgot to figure out where was the problem from.
That's how we learn, I guess.