Bonanza 36
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Inflight Event / Encounter VFR In IMC
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; General Maintenance Action
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Human Factors; Weather
Maintenance were looking into the DANTEL unit that passes information from the RADAR site to the control panel in the TRACON. At the request of the Technician; I gave 'control' of the panel to the panel located at the RADAR site. Immediately; the high voltage at the RADAR turned off and since we only have channel A RADAR while we wait for channel B to be fixed; I lost primary and secondary RADAR. I had no traffic at the time and I attempted to communicate with Maintenance what had occurred. Shortly after; a BE36 called after he departed a nearby airport to pick up his IFR clearance in the air. I informed him that I had no functioning RADAR and that I couldn't issue his clearance. Several minutes later; the BE36 called back and told me that he must have his clearance because he was in the clouds. I informed him that I still did not have working RADAR and he requested a vector. I told him that I couldn't vector him either and gave him a direction to fly generally that was away from taller obstructions. Soon after; the RADAR was restored; the aircraft received his clearance and proceeded on his flight. I don't have any recommendations because the VFR aircraft should not have climbed into the cloud layers.
GGG Departure Controller reports a Radar outage caused by maintenance. A request is received from an airborne BE36 to pick up an IFR clearance; which cannot be issued due to the outage. A few minutes later the BE36 pilot states that he must have the clearance because he is now in IMC. A few more minutes and the Radar becomes operational and the clearance is issued.