My 1st aviation hiccup

:) Very glad you figured it out and had a great outcome. When I read you were 1000' under an overcast layer, I kinda thought carb ice. I'm not a weatherman, but solid ceiling to me means roughly temp/DP are the same, and 1000' below that they're close, and that means maybe carb ice. I've had it twice in cruise in two different PA-28's, both times summer VFR, once below a ceiling as yours, once in light drizzle at night. At night it wakes you right up.
 
Flyxaos said:
He is from Washington, so likely on purpose, at Copalis State (S16).

It was recently Notamed for a whale on the runway.

Joking Notam, but still, there was a whale on the beach. That is a bit worse then a bird strike.
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Still, that beach looks smoother, more level and cleaner than most of the actual airport runways I have been to. The beaches I used to land on had plenty of driftwood, bumps and sometimes animals to make things interesting. There was no missing driftwood, I just had to try to hit the small pieces... :lol:
 
My memorized power-loss checklist starts with carb heat, trim for best glide, turn towards a field. After that, it's a flow, starting on whichever part of the panel takes me first to fuel.

By the way, on my first total power loss incident, I mistook it for partial power loss, because of the wind-milling of the propeller. Fortunately, I was within easy gliding distance of the runway (on a downwind departure). The prop stopped as I started to exit the runway.
 
kgruber said:
And while the 152 is an ice-collecting machine, the 150 is much more.
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All the carbed Continentals except the O-300/C-145 are bad for carb icing. The carbs are mounted on a manifold at some distance from the hot crankcase. Most Lycs have the carb bolted to the oil sump, which tends to inhibit ice somewhat, but it is not ice-proof as so many seem to think. The first flight of the day carries considerable icing risk until that sump warms up, and even then, the airflow through the carb carries the heat away very quickly. ANY venturied carburetor on ANY engine can ice up. It's the nature of carburetion.
 
I had the carburetor ice up in my 67' Corvette........going over Loveland Pass (11.990').Before the Eisenhauer tunnel.
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I tend to forget about carb heat and yes people don’t really understand nor teach it well. Glad that you figured it out in the heat of the moment, nice work!

Also I’m glad I’m fuel injected. :)
 
It sounds like you did everything right except for being slow to think of carburetor ice and broke the accident chain long before the last link. I'm glad there was still enough heat coming out of the engine to melt the ice for you. Thank you for sharing your story. I recently flew the Cub after a long break and, if the engine started to stumble over the snowy wasteland beneath me, I am not confident I would have thought to try carb heat promptly since I was at cruise power. Maybe if it happens to me in the future, this thread will come to mind and keep me in the air.
 
First, good job figuring out what was going on in a stressful situation.

I wasnt going to install a carb temp sensor on my build but was talked into it. TheO-320 D2A engine I have has the carb on the bottom under the oil pan. I just did a flight in 20 degrees F with clouds above for a little over an hour and the lowest carb temp I had was 88 degrees. Mostly around the 100 to 120 degrees.

I dont think the sensor was too expensive - why not install one and always know what is going on down there? All the training I did in a 172 carb heat was drummed into me - carb heat on downwind. Now I look at the temp and know.
 
iamtheari said:
I recently flew the Cub after a long break and, if the engine started to stumble over the snowy wasteland beneath me, I am not confident I would have thought to try carb heat promptly since I was at cruise power. Maybe if it happens to me in the future, this thread will come to mind and keep me in the air.
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My one carb ice incident was in a J3 Cub out of Homestead, FL. I was flying some of my ex-wife’s students on demo flights on a warm day. My recollection is that the engine remained smooth, but I had to keep advancing the throttle to maintain rpm. Eventually I had full throttle and had way less than full power. I finally thought “carb heat” and applied it, whereupon the engine died. Reducing it to partial carb heat* brought it back, and I could then gradually increase carb heat to full and make it back to the airport. Looking under the cowl, there was literal frost all over the carb.

Bear in mind this was over 40 years ago, so my memory of the details of this incident may be a little off. But it did leave an impression on me.


*I’m aware that one should not generally use partial carb heat - slight warming may make conditions worse. But in this particular case it seemed necessary.
 
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iamtheari said:
It sounds like you did everything right except for being slow to think of carburetor ice and broke the accident chain long before the last link. I'm glad there was still enough heat coming out of the engine to melt the ice for you. Thank you for sharing your story. I recently flew the Cub after a long break and, if the engine started to stumble over the snowy wasteland beneath me, I am not confident I would have thought to try carb heat promptly since I was at cruise power. Maybe if it happens to me in the future, this thread will come to mind and keep me in the air.
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Thank you.
Any time I descend or reduce power the 1st thing I think of is carb ice. In this case it didn't occur to me right away because I was in cruise with good rpm setting. This was a lesson I won't ever forget.
 
Can you cancel an emergency declaration once its been made? Or do you have to follow up with the feds?
 
Princesspilot206 said:
Can you cancel an emergency declaration once its been made? Or do you have to follow up with the feds?
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I suppose you can say the emergency has been terminated and you'd like to resume normal navigation. You may have to explain the circumstances to the FAA if they request an explanation. That probably would occur if your emergency caused traffic delays or separation issues.
 
I have declared and emergency three times and only talked to the NTSB once.

I suspect they would be pleased if I fixed what was the reason for the mayday call as soon as practical so they can get back to whatever they were doing before I declared an emergency.
 
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