This is why we train (kind of long)

Well, tonight will go in my book as something that I will never
forget. Tonight I learned a valuable lesson and was able to live to
tell about it. As a lurker here for many years, I have come to enjoy
reading about people's experiences and try to learn from their
mistakes. So tonight I am posting my experience in hopes that someone
else can learn from me.

Today started out as just any ordinary day with a cross county flight
that was going to take about 4 hours there, drop someone off and then
come back home. I was in a Seneca II turbo and the weather was
looking mostly VFR with the occasional MVFR called for my route, but
was clearing. My flight to my destination was uneventful. It was the
return flight and about 9 minutes out from my final destination when
things went wrong.

It was around 2200 and I was on with center with flight following and
I turned to the ATIS to get weather for my destination. They were
advising of Snow and ceilings at 2500. But how could that be, this
stuff was not forcasted, I'm about 30miles out, flying at around 4500
agl and I have the city in site, but not the airport. I asked center
if my destination was IFR and they advised that they were not. The
center then handed me off to approach. I proceed to descend in
anticipation of lower clouds then BAM, the city went away. I was not
IMC at the moment but I could not see anything in front of me.

I thought to myself, no big deal, I will call for local IFR and shoot
the ILS in. I have shot this approach many times.... Well at least in
an aircraft with 2 nav radios and a GS. I have about 50ish hours in
this Seneca (mostly x-county time) and we had just gotten the MX20 and
CNX80 system put in about 3 weeks ago. I really haven't gotten use to
shooting approaches with this system yet but here we go. Approach
gave me vectors and altitude changes. Now I'm in IMC. There's a
little vertigo coming into play now (don't know what that was all
about) so on came the autopilot and let my head clear. Now I'm flying
straight and level and on course. I knew I had about 15 or so miles
to go before they would start turning me in to the ILS so now I'm
pulling up the approach plate on the mx20. I have the paper one in my
lap but I was going to use every tool to my advantage. It pulled up,
now I can see exactly where I am on the approach. Now for the final
vectors, I've got the ILS tuned into the nav portion on the CNX80, I'm
getting what appears to be the proper reading on the HSI. But the ILS
needle isn't moving. Next I hear from approach that I have blown thru
the localizer and that they were going to turn me back around for
resequencing. No big deal.

I looked at my configuration on my systems to try and figure out why I
never got the localizer. The frequency was correct, I confirmed it
with approach and they advised it was working correctly. Then I saw
that I did not push the CDI button. I hit it and it came alive. Now
just as they are turning me back for final vectors, I look down and
see that my right fuel gauge is showing 0 but my left is still around
20. I then intercepted the localizer and turned inbound. It was at
that time the right engine dies. I reached down and hit the cross
feed but nothing.

Now here I am, in IMC, flying a plane with avionics that I have very
little experience with, with my best friend (which this is the first
time he has ever flown with me) and now with one engine dead. With
all of this, you can say I got a little distracted and started getting
off course. I had already switched to tower freq by now, so I
declared priority due to fuel. The left was still showing almost 20
but we all know how fuel gauges are accurate. An American Airlines
had just landed in front of me and he advised that he broke out at
around 1500 agl and that it was +10 vis underneath. I was able to get
back on the ILS and intercept the GS. I then started my decent
leaving my gear and flaps up (I had plenty of power on one engine to
maintain blue line, but did not want to take a chance) Just as I was
about to secure the right engine, it started rumbling to life. I
don't know if it was the descent that shifted the fuel or fuel was
finally making it thru the cross feed, I was about 1500 agl and broke
thru the clouds. There was the runway. The most beautiful site I have
ever seen. Flaps came out; Gear came down, and I landed. I was
drenched with sweat and it was 12 degrees and snowing but I didn't
care. I opened my little window and let that cold air in... It felt
good. I was alive.

Now it has been about 3 hours since I landed and I can not sleep a
wink. I keep thinking to myself how foolish I was believing that I
could go IMC using equipment that I was not all that familiar with.
Another thing that I can kick myself in the butt for was to not paying
more attention to my fuel situation. There are low fuel lights on the
annunciator panel but they never came on. The bulbs work fine, I did
test them.

But without the proper training, I might have allowed all these things
to just come to a boil. There were some moments of panic ( especially
when that right fan quit) but I was able to use the basic training of
dealing with engine outs and flying on a single engine that I was able
to regain my composer and continue to fly the ILS on one engine.
Without having that, they would probably be looking for the wreckage
now.

Thanks for reading my long winded story but this was kind of therapy
for me. I think that I can now go and get some sleep.


Scott