Hand held recommendations?

[Amberjack]

My old Standard Horizon bricks did the job well for years but the ni-cad batteries are finally starting to go. We use them when out in the tender and for backup in case the primary radio dies. Need them to be small enough and light enough to be comfortable in a jacket pocket. Inexpensive would be nice as these are secondary units. Any recommendations?

[mike ohlstein]

My 11 year old Standard still works great, and spare batteries are still available (even though the unit itself was discontinued years ago).

Just a side note..... since I started to fly, I picked up a handheld Airband radio (Icom IC-A25N VHF Airband Transceiver) to keep in the airplane in case of catastrophic instrument failure in-flight. Not cheap, but now I won't go off shore without it. Being able to radio a passing jet makes a lot of sense to me. I'm not sure why I never thought of it before.

[bob lico]

especially for you and me offshore boating in a very heavy air traffic zone.i always have that memory of crashing outside of El Paso,Texas years ago or i would probally buy a plane.damm if i will ever know why that plane did not burn.

[DanielM]

Mike, It can work to hail a commercial airliner.

There is a barrier island down here that is undeveloped other than the fishing cabins of the land owners and fairly remote. It’s off grid, only reachable via boat or private plane.

Probably 25-30 years ago, before cell phone coverage reached that area, one of the cabin owners was out in the middle of the night by himself and got stuck on a mud flat near the salt marsh. He had the handheld radio from his plane with him. As the mosquitoes from the salt marsh were mercilessly eating him up for a couple hours he noticed a commercial airliner passing over head.

He hailed the airliner, airliner contacted the tower, who contacted his wife, who got on the horn with fishermen she knew, and they lit up the radios. Just happened my fishing partner was out there gigging flounder and heard the call. He didn’t know the guy but he knew the area and went and pulled him off the mud flat got him home before daybreak. So it can work.

[Amberjack]

For all the jet heads on this thread. I was buttoning up Amberjack after a couple weeks in the San Juan Islands and heard a different jet engine sound. My summer moorage is under the approach for Boeing Field which they for final detail work before delivery or in this case FAA certification flights so I've become familiar with the sound of the different planes and grabbed this image. If you expand it enough you can just read the model ID on the belly. The 777X is now the largest production commercial plane being manufactured.

[Ironworker]

I carry both a marine band and aviation band VHF radios in my ditch bag.

I looked for years trying to find a single handheld that had both bands and they are available but not cheap or easy to get. Finally, I settled on the redundancy of carrying both radios.

Now with about 15,000 hours of flying and well over a thousand oceanic flights, redundancy is good!

I've only ever had two engine events while over the ocean, but so far never had to go swimming. Once, I blew a cylinder on a Bonanza about halfway between Daytona and West End, I for sure thought I'd be swimming that day

[bob lico]

ironworker tell us how you put her down

[Ironworker]

ironworker tell us how you put her down

Bob,

Frankly if it wasn't for an engine monitor which alerted me, it would have been a very ugly situation. The ocean state was 4 to 6' seas. I was loaded with cargo, my late wife and her bulldog were also along. I was at 11,000 because of the dog. I got a faint smell of something burning and glanced down at the engine monitor and the CHT on #5 was 495F climbing. I immediately went full rich but that didn't help, I hit HI Boost on the AUX Fuel pump and that brought the CHT down to about 425F. I tried reducing power but the engine would try to shut down so I kept the power at max and full rich with Hi boost on the fuel pump.

I had about 5 seconds to decide on continuing for the shallow water of the little Bahamas Bank for a ditch or try to make Ft. Pierce back across the gulf stream which was 40 nm away. I decided to try to make Ft. Pierce (closer for the USCG helicopters). I nursed the engine along while maintaining altitude until the remaining cylinder Temps started climbing. At this point I was just trying to keep the engine together long enough to get nearer to shore although, I was pretty damn sure my wife would not survive the ditching (she was very ill at the time).

Fortunately, with a heckva lot of luck and a lot of my wife's prayers I was able to make the airport at Ft Pierce.

Epilogue:
We got the cylinder replaced along with a few other items after a couple of days. I test flew the plane around the airport a couple of times and then met my wife back at the Tiki Hut at KFPR. Our choice was to fly back home or continue for the Bahamas. She wanted to go back to SC. I wanted to go to the Bahamas. The bulldog cast the tie breaking vote and we went to the Bahamas.

Lessons Learned:
I added a visual light and horn to the engine monitor which now alerts me once the alarm presets are reached and Always secure cargo in a plane!

[mike ohlstein]

Bob,

Frankly if it wasn't for an engine monitor which alerted me, it would have been a very ugly situation.
I added a visual light and horn to the engine monitor which now alerts me once the alarm presets are reached and Always secure cargo in a plane!

I just purchased an EDM-900 and will be installing it soon.

https://www.jpinstruments.com/shop/edm-900-2/

[Ironworker]

Mike,

the JPI 900 is a nice unit, I had one in a Tiger that I recently sold. I have 830's in my Bonanzas.

The only issue is it takes a little maneuvering to set the alarms to what you want them to be. The factory presets are not good enough and you're technically not supposed to be able to change them because its a primary instrument. However, they can be changed and should be changed! Unless you need the primary units you may want to consider the 830's or 800s. If need the primary then make sure your Avionics tech knows how to change the alarm settings.

Also I'd highly suggest connecting the alarms to a visual and aural warnings when one of the alarms are tripped.


What kind of engines do you have in the plane?

[mike ohlstein]

Single Lycoming IO-540 260HP

I'm doing away with the vacuum systems, so yes.... primary. The unit will be pretty much in my sight line, but there is a remote enunciator that goes right in front of your eyes and flashes a red warning at you if an alarm trips.

But I will surely follow your advice on changing the set points.

[Ironworker]

Mike,

I think the lycoming presets are 450F on the CHTs. Thats way too high IMO. Lycomings fly hotter than Continentals but 450F is still to high, kinda like the rent. You may be able to fly LOP which should bring your CHTS down to the 370F to 380F.

[Ironworker]

BTW, we need to get you into an Bonanza!

[mike ohlstein]

I looked at a Debonair but it didn't pass inspection.

I'm not a fan of the V tails.

But a C model might interest me......