Hak's TWC PIREP
N° 8


Nelson, Thursday 7 February 2002

As per request from Sir DW, Victoria, the Waterpipe and I prepared for the trip to Creston, Castlegar and as far as we might reach towards Golden. The Waterpipe is a beauty and very robust, great for STOL and ready for every adventure - but she's a grand old lady and cannot go faster than 135-140 kts. So, There was very little chance we would make it to our destination in one flight.

XP didn't detect the metar data, so I started in the hope it will come up later... we took off in quite acceptable weather. The flight stgarted out very smooth, and we were enjoying the scenery. Very relaxing flight after all this action.
Then, approx. 9 nm east-west of Nelson, something went wrong, very wrong. Suddenly all the electric systems failed, leaving me with very few information about my position... I shouted to Victoria to look out and try to detect anything above us, while I was monitoring (as good as I could beside keeping the aircraft flying) the ground around us. No sign of anything, yet it looked like we were striken by some mysterious forces. Was it pure coincidence, or was it an accidental emmission of the EMP source? Who knows, and I was too busy figuring out what I shall do now. This did teach me to take the route planning more serious, as I found myself in the ugly position of having to fly a crippled aircraft, and searching for emergency landing places in the vicinity.



A glider pilot took the picture below, just before he advised us over unicom(*) of the presence of smoke from our aircraft (*: I always cary a backup comm transmitter with me):


I could not find any sign of engine malfunction, and Victoria was screening the passenger cabine and cargo storage room for any sign of fire - without success. Now, it was clear that we have to land as soon as possible. Contacting the charts, I found that Salmo was the nearest airport, and I started heading down the valley, towards the safe place...




The landing went fine, and if we would not had to emergency land, I'd have enjoyed the wonderful view over the golfing site.


Once on the ground, we parked the Waterpipe and went to the local FBO to get in touch with a mechanic/aircraft electrician. Luckily there was someone, who remembered me very much of Old Salty, living in the nearby village (as seen in the pic above). He fell in love with the Waterpipe from the very first moment, and that might have helped a lot motivating him to have a look at her. Just as Old Salty, he didn't care a second about the beauty of Victoria, but he was so lovingly tapping the radial engine that I was almost moved to tears. It took him 3 hours and twentyone minutes to fix the whole electrics of the Antonov. He wasn't able to explain me the problems, but somehow he managed to get everything back running.
So, we took off again, after assuring "Grumpy-Dan" that we will visit him soon, and pick him up for a flight in the Waterpipe. By the time we were at the end of the climb, the weather suddenly became worse (finally the RWX was activated in XP). I forgot to engange the anti-ice system for a minute or two. And then we had to descent to as low as 150 ft agl, and still, the airframe was picking up ice very fast. The anti-ice system couldn't cope with the clouds near the freezing point. The Antonov lost much speed, and when we neared the stall conditions, I decided to set her down on the ground. We were following the roads anyway...


it was NOT my day. Really.



Gladly, we had still these 15 liters of deicing fluid in the store room, and so we spent another 30 minutes getting the Antononv free of ice, knowing that it will become a hard thing to fly the Waterpipe to Creston this day. Thanks to the STOL capabilities, we had no problem getting in the air again, and I flew like James Bond, only a hand full feet over ground, following the road.


Gladly, I am used to fly in narrow valleys. it pays off to be one of those few swiss pilots :-)


How releaved we were, when we saw the lights of Creston city. We prepared to land, and did so without a hitch. .



After parking the Waterpipe, doing the flight debriefing and arranging a bed for a night, Victoria and me were standing in front of the Waterpipe, and we understood without words that we three are a hell of a team, a loving family, and we will never want to be separated again. Too much tense and intense moments we lived together...

Anyway, we all are fine, although grounded by tiredness. We will now relax a bit, and then proceed further towards Golden, if weather permits.

Clear sky!
Hak