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Dear subscribers
Last week I flew from my home airport in Ohio to the Linden Airport
(KLDJ - about 10 miles south of Newark). I flew into this airport IFR
before and I recall the controller asking me if I could finish my flight
VFR because of all the traffic in this area. This time I decided not to
bother anybody and go VFR from the start since the weather was fine.
I had a Garmin 320 transponder and the amber light was happily flashing
all the way to New York. What I did not know was that the transponder
failed and was not sending out a signal....
When I landed the airport stuff came up immediately and told me to call
NY FAA. They filed then a Mode C violation and told me not to move the
plane without permission.
After I hung up with them I got a call from our front desk at my home
airport. Homeland security called them while I was still in the air and
asked about this airplane that departed from this airport. Fortunately
the girl knew me and gave them the right answers. I got a weather
briefing before I left. I don't know if this helped. I haven't heard
from Homeland Security so far...
When I wanted to move the 4P away from the fuel pump my starter died. I
had to stay the night and order a new starter overnight. The folks from
the Linden airport let me use their hangar because of my emergency
situation for free. Tom Madden from AOG aircraft services helped me with
ordering the starter, flew my transponder to another airport for bench
check, found me a used Garmin 327 transponder replacement, worked with
me on the installation of the starter, let me use all his tools and
charged me in the end 600$ !!! - what a positive experience in this
whole mess!!
After explaining the FAA that the old transponder failed and I had a
replacement in place I got permission to leave Linden the next day. The
new transponder works and everybody can see me again. The FAA indicated
that since I have a work order for testing the old transponder (Tom
Madden's recommendation) they will drop my charges.
I would have never guessed that you can get yourself in so much trouble
by just flying VFR.....
Ralf
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