Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

required VFR equipment failure en-route, land immediately?

Asked by: 1534 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

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

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.

    +2 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.