What would you do?

[TallBoy85]

Personally my students aren't allowed to use the turn coordinator until we talk partial panel stuff. The overemphasis of that particular instrument can lead to some nasty spills down the road in IFR flying...

Or maybe I just had command-performance flying beaten into me with a giant stick.

Funny you guys should mention it, my first trip into actual, departing out of Santa Monica, CA, climbing into the marine layer, our Turn Coordinator failed. We stuck an instrument cover on it. I guess that answers the purpose of the thread though...

[RiddlePilot]

I'm with Tallboy. If you're using control-performance (or command-performance), losing your TC shouldn't be a huge deal as long as there are no other electrical anomalies. The TC is used to maintain a constant-rate turn, with the AI giving primary bank information. Assuming your AI is still working, you're not going to be in danger here.

Declaring an emergency is way off-base, in my opinion. I'd inform ATC as per the regs, but getting any sort of priority due to this failure is pushing it.

[flyifrvfr]

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I would tell ATC that mt T/C is inop but I am not declaring an emergency. I would then request vector to my home field with no delay and shoot an ILS. If ATC vectors me all over gods creation or tells me to hold, I would then declare the emergency for priority handling.

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Huh? If you tell them you aren't an emergency and can accept normal ATC vectors, then how would you all of a sudden become an emergency just because you're assigned a hold or other delay? Your situation hasn't changed in the cockpit, assuming you have no other indications of more than just a failed T/C (eg- impending electrical failure).

Also as a sidenote, emergency declaration doesn't always equal being made instant #1 for approach/landing. So better to declare an emergency early if you feel the need to.

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You would be an emergency if the vacuum takes a crap on you. The T/C is your back-up if the vacuum fails. I fly rental planes and some planes I would never take into actual, most rentals don't have a second pump. If the T/C fails, its anybodys guess as to when or if the vacuum goes south. Tell ATC that your T/C has failed and they will ask if you are you declaring an emergency. You then tell them that no emergency now but immediate vectors for the ILS are required. They will go out of their way to avoid needless paperwork and give you anything you want. Also, some controllers will declare an emergency for you and you would never know it. They would not keep you in the air long enough for something else to go wrong, as they know Murphy is your co-pilot that day.

[RiddlePilot]

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You would be an emergency if the vacuum takes a crap on you. The T/C is your back-up if the vacuum fails. I fly rental planes and some planes I would never take into actual, most rentals don't have a second pump. If the T/C fails, its anybodys guess as to when or if the vacuum goes south. Tell ATC that your T/C has failed and they will ask if you are you declaring an emergency. You then tell them that no emergency now but immediate vectors for the ILS are required. They will go out of their way to avoid needless paperwork and give you anything you want. Also, some controllers will declare an emergency for you and you would never know it. They would not keep you in the air long enough for something else to go wrong, as they know Murphy is your co-pilot that day.

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If your TC and vacuum fails, you're just having a bad day.

I have a different stance on this point though. If you're flying an aircraft with a single vacuum pump and a failed TC, you're right: if your vacuum fails, you're screwed! But, you'd be in just as much trouble in a single-engine airplane if you were to lose that one engine in IMC. I also don't really have a backup to my altimeter, but I go flying anyways.

Backups like TCs are good safety measures, no doubt about that. However, losing a backup does not strike me as an imminent dangerous situation here.

[kellwolf]

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If your TC and vacuum fails, you're just having a bad day.

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Or you had my IFR instructor running the full motion sim. He did that to me one time just to see how I would react. I was in the middle of a timed standard rate turn and saw the little flag come on. Darn near impossible to fly like that with just a compass and the ball. Not sure how those old timers did it.

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I also don't really have a backup to my altimeter, but I go flying anyways.

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That's the beauty of the pitot static system. Barring ice, large insects, and the occasional plumbing problem, they hardly ever fail.

[Icelandair]

Someone mentioned it was a PA-44. The seminoles we have here have the heading indicator powered electrically too. If that hadn't failed it then the TC failure was unrelated. Then you also have TWO vacuum pumps to power your AI. Seems to me theres' enough redundancy in there still.