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required VFR equipment failure en-route, land immediately?

Asked by: 1531 views ,
Aircraft Systems, FAA Regulations

Greetings..

I had a failure on a flight yesterday and it got me thinking about what I would have done if it had occurred mid-way through my flight instead of on initial climbout. 

For my flight yesterday, I was flying a bird which recently got a whole new panel -- everything was condensed down to three GI-275s.  About 100ft AGL on initial climbout, the EFIS went haywire and after spitting some garbage onto the screen, lost all EFIS data points..  so, all of a sudden, I was without the following required equipment:  fuel gauges, oil pressure, oil temperature, tachometer.

In my case, it was obviously an easy decision to hang a left and join the pattern and land instead of continue on my planned 4 hour flight -- but what is required if that failure were to happen 2 hours into my flight instead?

I went and looked at 91.205, and it doesn't exactly say, but it would seem that the intent would be that flight cannot be continued (i.e. land as soon as practical).  My reason for guessing this is that 91.205(c)(3) (VFR night, anticollision requirement) specifically notes "In the event of failure of any light of the anticollision light system, operations with the aircraft may be continued to a stop where repairs or replacement can be made."  Since none of the other subpoints mentions this, and because this one does, my guess is that the regulation means the flight needs to terminate ASAP.

Is there a better answer for what's required by regulations?  Clearly the place I rent from would almost certainly expect me to fly the airplane back to home base, but would that be legal?

Thanks!

Joe

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1 Answers



  1. Russ Roslewski on Mar 15, 2021

    As the regulations do not mention any requirement either way in these scenarios, I infer that as placing it at the pilot’s discretion as to when to land.

    “ASAP” means “as soon as possible”. Other regulations say “as soon as practical” (or the strange word “practicable”).

    As one example of “ASAP”, if you’re in a single-engine airplane and your engine is on fire, you need to land “as soon as possible”. But in many other cases, there is not, and should not be, any requirement to land “ASAP”.

    So to pick a basic example, let’s say you’re in a 172 and you lose your tachometer. It goes right down to zero. Obviously your engine is still running, you can hear it – nothing has changed. Nobody reasonably expects you to just put in the airplane in a nearby field, nor does anybody expect you to land at the closest airport, which may be a privately-owned grass runway with no services or people around or anything. You are expected to use your discretion. Divert somewhere that maintenance is likely available, return home, continue to your destination, all are acceptable choices depending on the circumstances.

    I once had a mag problem (in a Warrior) about 25 nm SE of KDDC, headed NW to Wyoming. I could have landed at the nearest airport, 8K0, a 2500 ft grass runway in who knows what condition, with who knows what for services, attendance, etc. Instead, I elected to continue the 20 additional miles to KDDC, which had multiple paved runways, services available, and judging by the sectional, was near a town of some size. Much more likely to have someone to help. (As it turns out, they had a shop there that specialized in mag repairs, so I really lucked out. I was on my way in a few hours instead of what would have been a weekend-long ordeal had I landed at 8K0.)

    When I fly multiengine airplanes, if I have to shut an engine down, assuming there is no other danger and I have the performance to do it, my plan is to head to the nearest Class D (or better) airport. I figure they will be much more likely to have maintenance facilities, and someone looking out for me if I have problems on landing – and potentially fire/rescue personnel. In addition, of course, they’re also far more likely to have rental cars, a nearby hotel, food, etc.

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