Cyrus wrote:Wow. Just wow. That was thrilling. I was on short final for VNY at the moment "Black Sunday" hit. I went missed (not knowing the proper missed proc.), basically did a right traffic. Then - low and behold - I ran out of fuel on the downwind!! Ditched down on a highway just to the northwest of VNY. Overall though, that was awesome. I just hope the blood pressure was manageable in the ATC facilities
So that means you missed a chance to make several legal unusual ATC calls. Namely "Minimum fuel", "emergency", and the always popular "state souls on board and fuel remaining"............
At the risk of Monday morning quarter backing this, it seems to me the "minimum fuel" call should have been made on final (or maybe even when there were 45 minutes remaining). With "minimum fuel" declared this would put everyone in the mind set that going missed without a valid reason (someone on the runway or no visual at decision height) isn't the 1st choice.
I have to add with everyone else. It was actually an good exercise in how to handle the lost communication situation. In my case the controller told me to go around while I was on short final. The lost communications hit during the go around for re-sequencing. I was most proud of myself as set squawk to 7600 and flew the full ILS approach from UMBER (looking for traffic all the way). ATC communication was restored while on 2 mile final to land KVNY 16R.
This also offers an example WHY it's important to be well familiar with the flight plan and approach even when being vectored.
It was so great to hear the other pilots on the frequency and the extra radio traffic really added to the over all experience. These events are great in my book.
BTW, what was the high point in terms of number of people online? There were so many that I couldn't count. Seems like this event blew the past record out of the water!