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I Learned About Flying From That: When Something Goes ‘Thwack!’

** To see more of Barry Ross' aviation art, go
to barryrossart.com.**
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • A pilot experienced an alternator failure mid-flight shortly after activating a newly installed ice-protection system.
  • The cause was a misaligned feeder tube in the anti-icing system, which sprayed glycol onto the alternator belt, causing it to slip, overheat, and break.
  • The experience highlighted the importance of calm emergency response, using all available resources (POH, ATC, co-pilot), conducting controlled tests of new systems, and updating preflight checklists based on practical experience.
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Several years ago my uncle and I flew up to Boston to pick up our new company airplane and fly it back to Georgia after the installation of an ice-protection system. We had dropped the airplane off two weeks earlier — a milestone for me as a pilot and my uncle as a student pilot, as it was our first flight through the busy East Coast airspace.

Though both of us originally were Northerners, we had spent most of our flight time in the South, where the controllers manage to convey their instructions at a snail’s pace. But combine rapid fire communications with courteously delivered but seemingly endless amendments to our planned flight route, and you have a recipe for an exciting flight with little time left for sightseeing!

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