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Buck's RV-8
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Date: 7-15-2008
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Number of Hours: 0.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: My "Essential Bus" philosophy
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Let's talk E-Bus!
Some people install what they call an "Endurance Bus" in their airplane. They define the function of an Endurance Bus by stating its function -- to "continue the flight to the original intended destination," and then use battery power to make the landing.
I have a problem with this concept. If my "original, intended destination" was a 1500'-long turf runway in the wilds of Idaho, with no services and no maintenance available, then I humbly propose that continuing to the original intended destination constitutes poor airmanship. Now you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere with a bad alternator or contactor or whatever.
My backup bus is called an Essential Bus. My personal interpretation of this is: A power source that will get you safely and comfortably to the nearest suitable airfield where repairs can be accomplished. Maybe not with full-up instrumentation and all your electronic goodies and lights running, but with a carefully chosen batch of them. I call it an Essential Bus because that’s what it is -- the essentials.
Note I didn’t say "the nearest airport," I said the nearest suitable airport -- someplace with a maintenance shop, available transportation to take me to a nearby hotel, a stocked Pepsi machine, reasonable weather and wind conditions -- whatever I deem "suitable" in that particular situation.
As a responsible pilot, I will not over-fly a suitable airport when I have a known malfunction with my airplane. You can casually toss that concept out the window if you want, but I’m still here after flying 13,000 hours and 115 aircraft types, including military, experimentals, and warbirds. Works for me. Works for the military. Works for the airlines.
Just throwing it out there.
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