It'll be fine

That wasn’t my first rodeo with a failed alternator. It may be more accurate to say that my first rodeo was actually more of an almost alternator failure, brought on by a fairly inconspicuous issue that could have potentially become a big problem. 

I was flying my parents’ Cessna 177RG. After earning my private pilot certificate, I had been working on building time in that aircraft and jumped at the opportunity to fly with my dad on a post-forest-fire aerial survey mission near Redding, California, about a two-hour flight from our home base. We would be surveying a large area, and with the shorter December days, we planned on returning home before sunset.  

The flight started off smoothly, but about an hour in we noticed the ammeter needle was jumping, ever so slightly, every 10 minutes or so, indicating that something was drawing power. The Cardinal was in great shape mechanically but had recently received a repair for a small leak in the retractable gear actuator. Could that be the problem? To test this theory, I pulled the gear’s circuit and waited. The result? The alternator needle stayed steady. When I pushed the circuit back in, the ammeter showed a discharge, and we heard the aircraft’s now sagging gear being pulled back up. Obviously, the actuator was still leaking and allowing the gear to sag, causing it to continually need to retract the landing gear, activating the electrically actuated hydraulic system, which caused a strain on the alternator. Although this was annoying, we made the decision to press on. We landed for an early lunch at Willows/Glenn County Airport (WLW) and then headed off to Redding. The needle jumped. About an hour later, we landed at the Benton Airport (PA40) to refuel and then took off to begin our survey. The needle jumped; consistency is key after all. Once we completed the survey, we refueled again at Benton and then headed for San Martin Airport (E16).

About 10 miles from home, the engine was purring, the gauges looked good, and the alternator was...not looking so consistent anymore. Now, the alternator was showing signs of fatigue. The needle was indicating a steady discharge, no longer clicking back to the neutral position. We shut off the secondary radio, pulled the gear circuit, and went over procedures for getting the gear down manually should we lose the alternator in the next five miles. Thankfully, the alternator did not fail, the gear came down, and we landed safely.  

Even though we landed with no issue, things could have worked out differently. Had we lost the alternator earlier, we may have had to find a place to land that hopefully had services to get us back in the air. Had we been delayed into nighttime, losing the alternator would have been a bigger issue, as it may have resulted in a dead battery, no lights, no radios, and the gear actuator would have been the least of our worries. It would have been a better course of action to reschedule the long mission when we saw the potential problem, even this seemingly small one.Continuing on a day-long mission that had the potential to bleed into nighttime was not the best course of action in this case.

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