August 14, 1992
I was often flying down to Ft Myers for business. My father and I were working on a real estate project on Sanibel Island. I kept a rental car (long term) at Ft Myers Airways, then later the Jet Center, and then finally the Jet Center at RSW (Regional South West – the airport now known as Ft. Myers International.)
On this particular day the weather was a little iffy, with marginal VFR conditions forecast at KFMY, so I filed IFR with KRSW as an alternate. I was flying the club Piper Warrior, N4328F (pictured above). I flew this plane a lot because it was a little more fuel efficient than the Cessnas.
The Flight
The flight was uneventful until a little past Arcadia, when I noticed my ALT light was on, and the Charging Voltage was at zero. I was pretty sure I was about to lose my electrical system. I quickly listened to the FMY ATIS and it was still VFR, but barely.
I turned off the master and switched to my Sporty’s handheld radio. I contacted approach and asked for a special VFR in to the Control Zone (This was before all the ABC stuff – a Control Zone is basically the same as a class Delta.) They obliged but advised me to hurry as ceilings were dropping.
As I got closer, crossing the Caloosahatchee River, I could see the lower clouds. Approach called me.
“38F I’m handing you off to tower now but be advised the field is 800 ft overcast although visibility is more then 3 miles. Tower knows you are coming and is aware of your situation”
“OK thank you Approach, switching to tower, 38F.”
I told Tower I was inbound. “38F it’s 400 over here right now. Say intentions.”
“My intention is to land now and talk about it afterwards.”
“38F roger, cleared to land runway 13, wind calm.”
I descended to barely above roof top level and literally flew down the streets of Ft. Myers. Finally I saw runway 13 to my left, turned and landed without incident. As I was turning off the runway I asked tower, “Do I need to give you a call or anything?” They said, “No, no need. Safe landing, no foul.”
Overnight Maintenance
The next morning. the local mechanic worked on it briefly but said he found nothing wrong with the alternator. I took it up for a test flight. Good thing I had my radio because I had no avionics power at all. I landed it and looked at it again but everything checked out.
I called Lenny and he said “Can you fly it back here with just your handheld?” “Yeah I suppose that’s legal” (It was in those days. Not now, not without a ferry permit.)
I flew it back to Orlando and Lenny found the problem. There was a solder joint that worked at low RPM but came loose once the engine was above 2000 RPM. Yeah that would do it!
An easy fix, but a scary time for me.
