Citation I (C500)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Flight Engineer; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30; Flight Crew Total 9600; Flight Crew Type 850
Distraction; Training / Qualification
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Aircraft; Human Factors
I'm glad I took 36 hours to collect my thoughts as I have had time to think about what I could have done better and looked at probable causes. Just when I think I've made all the mistakes I possibly can; I once again become humbled. I got a little cavalier and overconfident and flat out made a simple but significant mistake. This is only the 4th leg I have flown this aircraft and it is very old (1978) and has had few avionics system updates. The standby altimeter is across the cockpit from the standby ADI and nearly impossible to find in the heat of battle. 1990 was the last time I'd flown one with similar radios and avionics; although that had a standard standby instrumentation package. My recent experience in the 500 series as single pilot Capt. extends back only 14 months and 135 hours. In between Citation jobs I flew for the Army as a contractor and spent 20 years part 121; all with a full crew complement.I only met the passengers for the first time earlier that morning. The purpose of the trip was to take the owner and his ailing wife to a cancer treatment in Dallas. She was obviously very weak and her husband under considerable stress. I had an electrical issue prior to departure from DAL and was initially unable to start the right engine. The left started normally. When I advised the husband of the problem; he busted open the entry door; threw down the stairs and stormed around in a circle cursing and kicking his foot into the air. His sweet wife then told him to calm down and get a grip and went back to reading a book. I was astonished by what I had just seen. I continued to do the usual troubleshooting and had the airplane manager start to secure assistance from a mechanic. Having opted for a battery start initially; I had a GPU brought out to the airplane. On the second attempt; I was able to get the start circuit to work properly and was able to continue normally from that point.I was eager to be leaving and be done with this man. We were 30 minutes behind and it was just turning dark. Taxiing out; I remember turning down the intensity on my iPad part way. All went well until I got to 1;000 feet AGL and did my after takeoff flow. My flow is to turn on autopilot; fan sync; flaps up; landing lights out; ignition off. When I reached up with my left hand to take the two ignition switches off; I accidentally switched the inverter switch from 1 to 2 and the radio master off. These switches are identical and located 3 inches directly above the ignition switches and had the exact same tactile feel. The newer 560 I fly full time has latched switches for inverter and avionics master that have a completely different movement and feel to them. This left me in the dark with no autopilot; ADI; altimeters; radios; navigation etc. I flew the airplane first; throttled back and reduced pitch. I guessed at the 5.5 miles out on the localizer for the turn to a 010 heading per the SID. I used my compass for the heading and did my best to use the standby altimeter down and to my left and the FO ADI. I switched my iPad to the approach for 13L so I had a little bit of situational awareness using that chart.At first; I fell back on whatever electrical issue that might have caused us the start problem. The problem looked very much like electrical or generator failure. After checking the loads and voltage; I noticed my ignition lights were still on and looked up at the inverter switch was at inv. 2 and the avionics master was off. Without delay; I went to on with the avionics master and inv. 1. At this point I was able to hear Love tower's radio call to verify my squawk code and altitude. It takes about 90 seconds for the Garmin 530 and 430 to come back up to speed and a lot of button pushing and knob twisting to get them up and running. Oddly enough; I made another mistake not falling back to basic ground based nav. Even though I had the radial and frequency for the SID set; I kept working at the Garmin trying to get it programedagain. It didn't know where it was at first and I never got the Capt. ADI corrected. It was at top of climb before I realized it was indicating about 3 degrees nose low. Love tower asked me if I needed to return to the field. I declined thinking I'd had it under control. I was handed off to Regional Departure and cleared to CLARE intersection. I couldn't get the Garmin to proceed to CLARE; so I used my iPad and cross referenced the radial and DME to navigate to CLARE. Looking back I should have asked for a vector. Within a few miles I was switched to Ft. Worth center and cleared direct to my destination. By this time the Garmin had found itself and I was able to use it for the remainder of the trip.Takeaways from this experience:Seat positioning may have contributed to my automatic reflex for the ignition switch and getting the wrong switches. Verify proper switches in hand. Switch them one at a time to make sure you're not left in the dark. Don't be pre-wired for a particular failure. i.e.; electrical/start circuit malfunction was fresh on my mind. In other words; past is not always prologue. I fell back on basic aircraft control quickly; but wanted to hang on to the magenta line. I should have fallen back sooner on ground based navigation once I had them back. Ask for help sooner in the form of a vector. At dusk; your cockpit lighting needs change quickly. Next time I'll go full bright until things are well under control. Be extra vigilant in a different airplane of the same type. Each one is often different enough to become a problem fast. The passenger's behavior was certainly a distraction.
C500 pilot reported a self-induced low altitude electrical problem that was caused by his unfamiliarity with this aircraft's switch layout.