From: utzoo!watmath!watcgl!dmmartindale
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Title: Re: lost IFR communications
Article-I.D.: watcgl.82
Posted: Wed Dec 29 10:51:23 1982
Received: Thu Dec 30 00:12:10 1982
References: tekchips.164

Losing communications is probably not as rare as you'd like to think.
During my first year of flying, I spent quite a bit of time in an old C150
owned by the student federation at Waterloo, which was cheaper to rent
than the 152's available.  The radio failed three different times while I
was flying it, usually for only a few minutes at a time.  (This plane
has now been sold - I hope whoever buys it replaces the radio).
Flying IFR-equipped planes, I've had one of the COM radios suddenly
appear to have ceased transmitting - I switched to the other and all was
fine, and the first appeared to recover later.  A friend and I were flying
to Oshkosh last August, and the alternator failed completely when we were
not far from the field.  By the time we noticed it, there was not enough
energy in the battery to reach Wittman tower, so we shut off everything
electrical, flew back north to the edge of Appleton's control zone, and
got one call in to them explaining the problem.  So far, all of these
stories have had happy endings, but I fly only VFR at the moment.
Particularly after the Oshkosh incident, having a battery-powered 
extra transceiver along seems like an EXCELLENT idea.  Now if I can only
find someone in Canada who sells them  (assuming that they have even been
approved for use here).